Ripples of a Girl
by Chen ZiXin
Summary: "I never really believed in Santa Clause, which in retrospect is a bit of a pity. Instead I believed in aliens, time travellers and ESPers. I suppose I should have been more like her. Now... I can never go back." - Kyon. A complete reimagining of the Suzumiya Haruhi series, where a change worth of one girl on that one Tanabata that particular year is worth a universe of difference.
1. Chapter 1 - I

**Disclaimer: **I don't know why we make these, really. I think it should be obvious that we don't own the franchise, or we wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**A/N: **This chapter is subject to future editing and changes. Future chapters are also not guaranteed.

* * *

When did I stop believing in Santa Clause? My my... that is certainly a good question.

I suppose I never believed in Santa Clause. The entire idea never really stuck with me. In retrospect, I suppose I should've tried a bit harder to believe in the idea of a jolly old man in a red suit giving out presents to children. After all, such beliefs are harmless, and it's always nice to have something nice and innocent to believe in. Now I'm way past the age where I can still believe in Santa Clause.

Though I did believe in some supernatural things. UFOs, or super powered humans, time travel... those things did strike me as interesting. I did wish that someday I'd be whisked away by some awesome paranormal event. Unfortunately, I too had to abandon these dreams in the face of reality.

And so I became a high school student. An absolutely normal high school student. I didn't really want to be anything different anymore. I just wanted to blend into the background; part of the faceless horde of people, without a sense of individuality or self. To just be a mindless drone, watching the world without judging.

Somehow managing to wake up in the morning and walk up a rather steep climb to my new high school, I was able to attend the opening ceremony on the first day. By the time our class started introductions I managed to make a quick speech meeting the bare minimum requirements; nothing that stood out, but not so short that it attracts attention.

And then, the girl behind me does the exact opposite.

"From Middle East school, I am Haruhi Suzumiya! I have no interest in ordinary people! If you're an alien, time traveler, esper, or slider, come to me! That is all!"

As abruptly as she stood and spoke, she stopped and sat.

Despite every part of my conscious mind advising against it, I naturally gave in to the urge to turn around and look at exactly what sort of person gave such an abrupt self introduction.

That was the first time I met her.

* * *

It was sometime between classes, and I was growing bored of merely looking around at random points in the classroom, I decided to strike up conversation.

"Did you really mean that?"

She didn't respond. Perhaps it was because I didn't face her when I was speaking. Maybe she didn't realise I was talking to her. I make an effort to correct this by tilting my head vaguely in her direction.

"That thing about aliens," I clarify.

From the corner of my eyes I notice her scowl at me. "If you're going to talk to me then turn your face to look at me," she practically spat. "And why do you care? Are you an alien?"

Honestly? No, I doubt I'm an alien in the sense you speak of. And to be honest, I don't see your attitude that great either.

Deciding that the conversation has ended, I turn back to facing forward. I've more or less made up my mind that I shan't associate with this sort of person.

For her part Haruhi returned to being silent. I'm certain she was still scowling, and she would remain so until the end of the day.

* * *

At lunchtime my middle school friend Kunikida pulled a chair next to my desk, following which Taniguchi followed suit. I didn't mind any of that, since any company was fine by me. I just kept to my own lunch as I listened to Taniguchi shamelessly rate the girls of our class.

"I've already memorised the names of all the girls ranked at A grade," he boasted. "Like Asakura Ryouko in our class, an A plus plus in my book. Perfect personality, perfect looks, highly popular. The ideal woman of any man's dreams."

"What about Suzumiya Haruhi?" asked Kunikida. "She looks pretty attractive too, doesn't she? Weren't you in the same middle school as her?"

Despite not really holding much stake in the conversation I did increase my alertness levels towards it. I suppose any person would be curious about a person who introduces themselves with the line "I'm not interested in ordinary humans" and so forth.

Taniguchi's face, however, made it quite clear that the aforementioned girl did not fit into his 'A grade' list. "Yeah, we were from the same middle school alright," he said, none too happy about it. "And while she may be a good looker with excellent grades and athletic skills she is nothing more than the lowest delinquent. She's done some crazy things in the past. For example, she goes out with any guy that ask her out; and I mean _anyone_, but none of the guys last more than a week. There was even one guy that only lasted five minutes."

"You?"

The colour of Taniguchi's cheeks said 'yes'. Of course, he'd never admit as much.

"What...? No it wasn't me. It was some other guy. I don't even remember the guy's name, so stop looking at me like that, Kyon!"

Almost immediately after he finished Kunikida elbowed him disapprovingly. The two shared a glance for a moment before Taniguchi's turned back to me, suddenly speaking in a much more diminished tone.

"Hey... sorry about that..." he said. "I got caught in the moment... force of habit..."

There was something about the situation that I didn't like. Maybe it was just Taniguchi's sudden change in attitude. I felt like I was being pitied by the usually comedic and boisterous Taniguchi.

"Don't worry about it. It's fine. I don't really mind, anyway. You can keep going with that if it suits you. I guess I'm used to it by now." I lean back in my chair, thinking out loud. "Who knows? Maybe hearing that all the time will be good for me."

Taniguchi nodded, but he didn't quite yet return to his talkative self. Sensing the awkwardness of the conversation Kunikida changed the topic.

"Well you did always have a thing for weird girls," he said to me. "Like that girl from our middle school. You two got along really well."

"Really?" Taniguchi looked up in surprise, and quickly began to grin. "See? I always said you could find a girlfriend if you tried. And if weird girls are your thing then you need not look further than Suzumiya Haruhi."

"She wasn't my girlfriend," I said. Truthfully. "And I don't have a thing for weird girls. "

Having felt like I've spoken more than my share for the duration of the lunchtime conversation I went back to shoving rice into my mouth. Taniguchi tried to press further, but I mostly ignored him.

In any case, from my experience so far and the information I've gotten from the conversation, I can tell that it'd be best to avoid Suzumiya.

* * *

Over time my decision to not associate with Suzumiya started to seem increasingly valid.

Firstly and most obviously was Suzumiya's changing of hair style on a daily basis. She adds more hair ties as the days of the week goes, and resets on Monday. No hairstyle does she have twice in a row. Everyone notices, but nobody really spoke of this to her.

This is because she generally shot down any attempt at conversation to her. At first, girls would approach her and try to talk about the latest TV show which Suzuimya will either ignore or dismiss rather condescendingly. Enthusiasm for making friends with Suzumiya quickly died down eventually, as the girls start forming their own social groups, of which all of them exclude Suzumiya, and often when she's away, gossip behind her back. Quickly, Suzumiya becomes an outcast among the girls, and the only person that still dares to approach her is the all-perfect class representative Asakura Ryoko, but even she makes little progress if any.

Next is the fact that, for PE classes, Suzumiya seems to completely ignore the fact that there are males in the class, and get changed before we leave. It's as though we don't exist to her, or that our opinions are so unworthy of her attention that she doesn't care if we watch with judging eyes.

And then there's the rumours that she had joined and quit every club in the school. Her perfect scores, athletics and beauty mean that all the clubs keep begging her to rejoin, but she has yet to give anyone a second chance at impressing her.

Within a few weeks she managed to build up more notoriety to become little short of making the local headlines. I wouldn't have minded as much nor paid as much attention if she didn't sit right behind me, but since she does I always feel pressured every time the entire class looks in my direction when Suzumiya walks to her desk.

Originally I was hoping that, after Asakura became class representative, seating rearrangements would mean I would no longer have to worry about being 'the person who sits in front of Suzumiya' as an unofficial title. The universe's random number generator seemed to disagree. Thus, for the rest of the year I find myself fated to sit beside the window, second seat from the back, and with Suzumiya and only Suzumiya seated behind me. Goodbye, normal student life.

Nonetheless, despite having been temporarily stopped at the first hurdle of adapting to my still new high school, I decide to make the most out of the seating arrangement. After all, I'd been toying with the idea of joining a club for a while. I didn't want to just go home and study after school, and joining a club would be something to put down on my CV for my future.

I turn my eyes to glance in the general direction behind me. "They say you've been in all the clubs," I said. "Any recommendations?"

She glares at me for having spoken to her again. "Have we met before?" she asks suddenly.

For the first time in a while I turn to face her. I'm fairly certain my surprise should show on my face. "Did aliens scramble your brain? Or did you forget the fact that I've been sitting in the seat in front of you since school started?"

"Ugh, that's not what I meant!" she growls, disappointed in my answer. "Never mind! I thought you were someone else!"

That's perfectly plausible, I suppose. People, faces, names, they start melding into a grey mush in our minds over time. "I suppose. You still haven't answered my question."

"About the clubs? They're all boring! Nothing supernatural at all! Which is why I quit them!" She folded her arms and turned away, believing herself to have said her fill.

I sighed internally, and likewise sighed externally. A part of my mind had hoped that maybe she could have a constructive conversation just once with someone, but it becomes clear to me now that she doesn't intend that to ever happen.

"You can't expect things to just go your way, you know. There aren't many people that share your brainwaves. You'd be better off just doing as everyone else does, really. It's a lot easier," I say, turning back around. Half talking to her, half talking to myself. Maybe she'll listen, maybe she won't. Regardless, she responds with pure silence.

I, on the other hand, decide that I might as well just try have a look at all the clubs myself.

* * *

After the school bell rang, ending classes for the day, I made my way to the door (where Suzumiya stormed out after pushing me aside, bent on getting out the door before me for whatever reason) and started to go around having a look at the different clubs that currently existed in our school.

I kept my mind open for joining a sports club, since some exercise may be good for me, but I wasn't that enthusiastic on the idea either. I take occasional glimpses at all the odd hobby clubs or arts clubs as I go, taking note of them each in kind. None of them seem to jump out at me and say 'hey, this is the club', but I didn't expect them to.

Within half an hour I'd made it into the old building, which are mostly used by smaller clubs. These groups would be less likely to appeal to me, but I didn't want to rule them out just yet. Besides, there's little else to do.

Glancing at the handwritten club signs one by one as I walked, I stopped myself at a room on the second floor, with an old label 'Literature club' on it.

_Interesting_, I thought to myself._ I don't recall hearing the literature club attempting to recruit new members at the start of the year. In fact, I didn't even know there was such a club._

Taking a moment to think about it, I come up with the following hypotheses: Either the club is currently too small to properly operate, or it's already non-existent. In either case, it'd be a nice quiet place to just sit and relax every day after school. Who knows? Maybe I could pick up on my literacy skills, or even publish a novel one day.

Not that I'm holding my breath for it. Regardless, I decide to take a look. Lifting my hand to the door, I knock it twice, waiting for a response.

After five seconds of waiting, I had just checked the room off as 'empty' when I just barely hear "Yes, come in please" cut out from inside the room.

Wondering why it took so long for a reply to come I opened the door and stepped in.

The room itself was quite old, and it had a simple layout. A desk in a middle, a few cheap foldable metal chairs, and a bookshelf at the side. It was more of a closet than a proper clubroom, but I suppose it was enough for a literature club.

As for the literature club itself, it was all down to one person; a girl. Short hair, with a book in her lap, sitting with perfect posture. She stared at me through her glasses with a rather serene expression. I was on the verge of passing this girl as a third year, before I noticed how diminutive she was. Was she one of those people with stunted growth? Or is she a first year with a good upbringing?

"Hello, sorry for intruding," I say. I try to sound genuinely apologetic, but I end up speaking in the dry, weary tone I always speak in.

Taking her time to formulate her response, she spoke in a remarkably tranquil voice. "Yes, good afternoon. And you aren't intruding."

Her tone and her choice of words made me think for a moment that she might read a bit too much and speak too little.

"I'm taking a look at clubs and seeing which ones I might be interested in joining," I explain in full honesty. "Are you the only member here?"

Again, she takes a while think of her answer. After propping up her glasses and brushing aside her hair, she nods (nullifying the effect of the first two actions). "All the members from last year graduated. I was the only person to join this year."

She turns back down to read her book when she visibly has a moment of realisation, doing a double take and asking "Would you like to join? There are absolutely no membership fees required, nor any prerequisites."

"Like I said before, I'm taking a look."

Again, she thinks for a while. "Oh, yes. I suppose you did indeed say that you were taking a look."

She seems to be lost in her own world. Perhaps I should leave her be.

I was just about to turn and leave before the girl suddenly stood up and strode over to the bookshelf, pulling out a white page. With the page in hand she then strode over in front of me, handing it to me with something of a small bow.

"Please, if you are at all interested in joining the literature club, sign this form here," she pointed at the page, which was titled 'literature club membership form'.

"Thanks, but I'm not exactly sure if I'm joining just yet." I didn't want to be forced into something without taking proper considerations of all my options first.

The girl shook her head. "You have only to sign the form. I don't expect you to show up" She tilted her head, quietly adding. "To be honest... I'm just a bit short on members... so..."

I suppose I see her dilemma. Still, I'm hesitant on joining a club just yet, especially one with just one girl as the sole member before. The unfortunate implications of that are things I don't want spreading as rumours about me.

"Alright, I'll think about it."

Furrowing her eyebrows, she nods. She strides back to the bookshelf, picking a book from it, all the while murmuring about how the room was nice and relaxing, like a sales agent set to low volume.

"Anyway," she hands me the book that she grabbed from the shelf. "You can have this book. You're the first person in this room after I joined."

I take the book in hand. It was a book on human anatomy. "Thanks... I suppose..."

Reading my expression, she quickly goes back to the bookshelf. "Ah... you can also have the fiction novels... those were left behind from before and I've already read them..."

"No that's fine..." I say, a moment too late as the girl piles several books into my arms.

Nonetheless, I start to feel like I'm opening up to the idea of joining. I mean, it certainly is a nice and quiet place, and none of the other clubs interest me more than here. The girl even said herself that she doesn't expect attendance, so I'd be doing her a favour just by signing up, even if I end up dropping the club altogether. Besides, I don't see any of the other club presidents welcoming me into their clubroom with open arms and piling bribes to convince me to join.

"Alright. I'll join."

"... and this book is quite old but i..." she stops mid sentence to process my words. "You... you will?"

"Yeah. I just have to sign the form, right?" I set the books down on the desk and take a proper look at the paper.

Evidently surprised that her recruitment attempt succeeded, the girl started to frantically look around. "Oh. A pen... I should have one here..."

As she fumbles to look for a pen, I pull one of my own from my bag and start filling in my name. By the time she's managed to actually find a pen I had already finished and handed her the form.

She stared at the form in disbelief for a while, before she finally managed to calm down to the relaxed expression she had when I first entered.

"Ah. I've forgotten to introduce myself," she said, bowing. "Nagato Yuki. First year. Literature club president."

So she was a first year.

I bowed in return. "My name is on the form. Also a first year. Literature club vice president."

"Oh? Since when did...?" Nagato paused for a moment to think, before she finally let out a small smile. "I see. I hope we may learn from each other, vice president."

For the next half an hour we sit down, and start discussing actual club management; what to add to the room (Nagato says she has wanted a computer for a while now), how to spend club funds, potential future activities, maybe even recruiting future members. Somehow, sitting there and acting like a managing member of an actual club felt good for a while; being able to feel like I achieved something.

This feeling was soon shattered, however, when the door to the room suddenly blasted open. I turned in surprise to look, but I needn't have to know who it was.

"I hereby annex the literature clubroom, all its contents, and all its members!"

It was none other than Suzumiya Haruhi.

* * *

**A/N: **I've had an idea like this in my head for a while now, and I just wanted to finally put it down into words. It's the first time in a while I'm writing a fanfiction from the perspective of the original narrator and the reason I usually avoid it is because I find it hard to captivate the style of the original series. Since this fanfic is set in an alternate universe with changes to personality, though, I hope it will be less of a problem.

As of so far I doubt that many (if any) of you can tell what the core changes behind this is, but it'll be interesting to find out. However, I am having a hard time fitting the idea into proper chapters and a consecutive story, so please bear with the long delays between chapters (which is, on , a common thing anyway).

Open for critique, suggestions, and any sort of feedback or help. Hopefully this story will be able to pull through to the finish line.


	2. Chapter 1 -II

**A/N: **The contents of this chapter are not finalised and are subject to changes. Maybe.

* * *

One could almost feel a cold wind blow into the room in that long moment of silence. Suzumiya appears to believe that her announcement was sufficient and might have been waiting for a response. On her face was the a smile so bright I could actually see light radiating from her, and increased her beauty tenfold; this was the first time I had ever seen her with an expression beyond a scowl. Who knew she could make such a face?

Nagato was still processing the event, quite evidently more confused than I was. And I'm already at a high level of confusion.

"What?" was all I managed to say. It was quite an involuntary reaction, actually. It just came out without much thought.

"I said, I'm annexing the literature club," she repeated, no less decisively than the first time. "Are you deaf or something?"

Unfortunately that explanation doesn't help at all. I'm just as lost as before. What on earth is she annexing the literature club for?

"I'm going to do what you said; since all the other clubs are boring, I'm going to make my own club!"

When did I ever say anything remotely like that? Why would you think I would have ever tried to encourage you to do that?

I open my mouth to speak up, with perhaps a little more emotion in my voice than usual. "Hold up... you're trying to make a club right? What does that have to do with the literature club?"

Her smile died down and temporarily returned to her usual scowl. "Are you always this slow? I need a clubroom and club members, of course!"

"But what gives you the right to just 'annex' the literature club?"

She looks at me as though I'm asking the obvious, and I would like to take this moment to point out that what is obvious to her is not obvious to the rest of the world. "It's not like anyone is in the literature club anyway, and the room isn't occupied."

What are we to her? Two sacks of air?

By this point Nagato had managed to mostly catch up to our conversation, as she turns to me and asks, "Do you know her?"

I wish I could say 'no' without lying. "Yeah, I know her. She's a classmate of mine. Her name is Suzumiya Haruhi. Maybe you've heard of her. For as far as I know she tends to cause trouble."

"Hey!" Suzumiya protests. "Don't you take over my introduction, Kyon!"

Since when did she start calling me that?

"You let Taniguchi and Kunikida call you that right? So it's fine!" she somehow concludes.

No... that's slightly different.

"Anyway," Suzumiya turned to look at Nagato, once again beaming with her newfound energy, and completely ignoring the fact that I hadn't finished our conversation. "I'm Suzumiya Haruhi. I'll be taking over the literature club now, if that's okay with you."

"Eh...?" Nagato shifted glances between Suzumiya and myself.

"Great! Glad to know we're on the same page!" Suzumiya swiftly took hold of Nagato's hand and shook it rigorously as though they'd come to some sort of agreement. Which I doubt, considering that Nagato still seems to not have quite gotten what Suzumiya was talking about.

You know what? I should just give up. Suzumiya was always living in another world from mine or anybody else's, and she has just taken a great leap even further away from Earth. I wouldn't be surprised if she was an alien herself.

I open up the book Nagato handed me, abandoning my club president to deal with the incomprehensible Suzumiya by herself. I'm certain I'll be more productive by pretending to read about the digestive system than talking to my oddball classmate.

As I try to bury my nose into the otherwise boring science book (which I understand only slightly more than I understand Suzumiya), I hear the literature club president trying to speak up for herself.

"The literature clubroom isn't actually available for taking," she manages to say. "But if you want to rejoin the literature club I could give you another membership form."

Terrible idea. Assuming Suzumiya agrees, I'm certain we will not be able to have any tranquility in this room should she join the club.

"No, the literature club is boring. All you do is read," was her reply. Quite a harsh thing to say to the literature club president, mind you. "Which is why I'm going to use this room to do something much more interesting! And if you join my club I'll even let you stay here and read without disturbance!"

It's amazing that she's offering rights to the literature clubroom to the literature club president.

"I'm not exactly sure that..." Nagato tries looking in my direction again. Evidently, she's having a hard time with the pace of the conversation. Unfortunately, I cannot come to her aid, for I have nothing to say.

Taking my silence and Nagato's pause between structuring sentences, Suzumiya starts looking around the room. "Hmm... it could do with a few additions, but I suppose I'll just think of those later. First things first." She points her finger at me. "Kyon! You sort out the paperwork for making a new club! I'll go off to find two more members!"

Two more members? Is three the minimum required amount of members for a club?

"No, I meant two more apart from us three!" she said, once again looking at me like I'm asking the obvious. "The student council needs a total of five members before a club is formed."

So she truly has already considered us to have agreed to joining her imaginary club.

"Actually..." Nagato still tried to object, but alas, she continues to have difficulty formulating sentences under pressure. While I suppose I really should lend her a hand I somehow felt that Suzumiya would ignore whatever I had to say. Instead I go down the route of 'appeasement', and continue to keep my mouth shut.

The less I speak to Suzumiya the better.

"Well, that's enough progress for today! Good work, me! Club dismissed!" The energetic Suzumiya smiled one more time, satisfied with what she perceived to be the fruits of her 'work', before marching off.

Nagato and I were left alone once again. We sit in silence in the wake of Suzumiya's sudden and dramatic entry and equally swift exit until the literature club girl regains her posture.

"Deserter," she quipped, tilting her head. "In my time of need." There was a noticeable tinge of genuine weariness in her voice, though I suppose it's because she speaks rather quietly.

"I apologise, honourable club president," I responded; probably sounding anything but apologetic. "I did not want to take over your responsibilities in dealing with potential recruits to our great literature clubroom."

Raising her eyebrows and propping up her glasses, the girl shook her head, speaking in a murmur, just enough for me to hear. "Perhaps we should reconsider your position as vice president."

Matching her volume, I responded, "And perhaps I should reconsider my showing up to the literature club."

For a moment she looked up at me with renewed panic before she realised that I was, in fact, half-joking.

I say half-joking, though, in that I was still half-serious. If Suzumiya really does intend to 'take over' the literature club room I'd rather not be here for anything else she has in mind.

* * *

I had trouble getting up in the mornings, as usual. It was just a thing. I never liked mornings. Despite setting up an alarm I almost always seem to fall asleep the instant I turn it off with no recollection of it having ever sounded. It didn't help that the thought of climbing the hill to school every morning put me off from going every day.

By the time I had arrived in class Suzumiya wasn't yet in the seat behind me. Not that it mattered to me. I'd just ignore her even if she was there.

Just as I place my bag onto my chair, though, I hear someone call out to me.

"Hey, Kyon," Asakura calls. She suddenly pauses for a moment, as though she had just accidentally knocked over a Ming vase.

_I see. So Taniguchi or Kunikida must've told her._

I shrug at her and attempt a smile (which I quickly give up on; smiling isn't my thing). "Did you want something, class rep?"

Quickly returning to her normal friendly expression the long haired girl starts to explain: "I just wanted to ask what you think of Suzumiya-san. You seem to be the only person that she doesn't completely ignore in the class, which is something that everyone else finds quite amazing."

Hearing that I feel some part of me sink for a while. _Am I too different?_ I ask myself. I shake the thought away. "I don't know," I say. "She sits behind me, and she's a bit weird. That's all I know about her."

Asakura gives me a skeptical look. Is what I say unbelievable? I mean, that's what everyone else thinks isn't it?

"Okay then," she says smiling ever so charmingly, putting her hands behind her back in a rather childish manner. "If you don't really mind, could you try and talk to her a bit more? It should be pretty easy for you, since you sit right in front of her. Maybe you could mention her daily changing hairstyle."

And what if I do mind?

Asakura now claps her hands together in a begging motion. "Please? As class rep I'm just worried for everyone. Think of it as a favour to me that you can call me up on in the future."

Not quite waiting for my response, Asakura left. Perhaps it was because at that same instant, Suzumiya came in, and soon took up the chair behind me.

Normally, this is the part where I just put my face down on my desk and ignore the world until class starts. I find it hard to do this now, however, since I can feel Asakura, and in fact, just about the whole class staring at me expectantly. Most likely, they aren't going to stop staring until I talk to Suzumiya. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Fine. Let's think of the quickest way to end this.

I turn halfway to Suzumiya's direction, rolling my eyes around such that she's in view.

"Hey," I say, trying to force my voice to be as casual as possible. Given that my tone doesn't change much, ever, I don't know how much anyone notices my effort.

"What? Did you get the paperwork ready?"

That's the first thing that pops into her mind? I never intended to do that paperwork, you know.

"Pathetic," she crosses her arms. However, she's noticeably less agitated than she usually is in class. Though... compared to her beaming smile yesterday, she's still acting quite hostile. "Well, I suppose I can't expect much from you. Just hurry it up. I've already found who I want as the newest addition to our club."

She's still going on about that. So be it. I just hope that my classmates (who are listening in on just about every word of our conversation) don't judge me from what she's saying.

"Whatever," I say, shifting the conversation topic. Didn't Asakura want me to talk about hairstyle? Let's see... Suzumiya has a ponytail today. It's not too bad. "You know, you could just stick to that hairstyle."

Her expression suddenly switches to a face one would make when they open a box and find a dead rat inside. "Wha...? What the hell does that mean?"

Never mind. I tried my best.

I turn to face the front again, ignoring Suzumiya's attempts of regaining my attention. For now Asakura and the rest of the class seem to be satisfied with our 'conversation', and have all turned to their own conversations.

From the reflection in the window I notice Suzumiya removing the band holding up her pony tail, grumbling and cursing beneath her breath as she does so. So be it. So long as she doesn't keep changing it every day.

* * *

That afternoon Suzumiya rushed out the door before I could even pack my bag, shouting something like "You go ahead first" at me as she went, most likely meaning the literature club room. Her saying this had the adverse effect of making a strong argument for not going.

On the other hand, I had already told Taniguchi and Kunikida to walk home without me during lunch break, and I told my mother I wouldn't be home because I joined the literature club. The last thing I want to do is to go back and say "never mind. I dropped out of the club", and see their disappointed faces. And besides, I don't feel like going home now and just lying down on my bed as I wait for my life to seep out of me.

As such, I make my way to the literature clubroom.

Entering the room after knocking, I discover Nagato Yuki already sitting inside. She glances up at me and gave a polite wave at me, and I returned the gesture. As I sat down she returned to reading her book, sitting in perfect posture.

Silence reigns between the two of us, save for Nagato occasionally turning a page. Even though it isn't much different from sitting in silence at home, the atmosphere just felt more pleasant.

"I didn't think you'd show up, honestly."

It took me a split second to notice that the literature girl had spoken. It was otherwise like a breeze had blown by.

Shrugging, I reply with the simplest of explanations. " I didn't join any other clubs, but I don't really feel like going home yet."

In saying that, perhaps I should join another club. I still haven't checked out the sporting clubs.

After processing my response (I'm starting to notice that her lags are actually quite uniform in timing) Nagato turns to look at me. "I see..." was all she said as she propped up her glasses.

I knew the expression she was making. Maybe it was the light reflecting off of the lenses, but I doubt it. In the past month I've seen that expression often enough from everyone around me to recognise it. It was pity; something that I've grown accustomed to. What I wondered, though, was how _she_ knew. Did word travel so quickly around the school? It shouldn't, though, should it?

Before I could make an enquiry, though, the door crashed open, interrupting my thoughts.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late! It took me a while to find this girl, but here she is!"

Suzumiya waved a hand at us, while she tugged at someone's wrist with her other hand - she honestly kidnapped someone, I see. She pulled in a petite girl into view, and locked the door behind her.

I'll admit it here and now; this girl she dragged in was honestly good looking.

"Hmm?" the girl mumbled, in a voice that implies she isn't talking to anyone in particular. "I see... that's how I get here..." she narrated for herself. "Makes sense."

Despite being kidnapped this girl seems to be somehow enjoying herself. Her face is full of smiles as she looks around the room, making amused observations on 'how empty the room still looks'. A comment that, as a (new) literature club member, I felt a small sting from.

"Yeah, it could do with a bit of work," Suzumiya agreed, as she turned around. "Now stand still so I can introduce you!"

The girl complied, letting out an adorable little giggle the way a child would laugh in an improvised play. Suzumiya put her hand on her shoulder, and turned to look at me.

"This is Asahina Mikuru-chan!"

Introduction end.

Suzumiya stood with another look of triumphant satisfaction, and the newly 'introduced' Asahina was simply smiling as though she was fine with the name-only introduction, before she added, "Oh, and I believe I'm a second year, by the way," while checking her watch. "That makes me your senpai."

Once again, we have silence in the room. A more awkward variety.

There is an odd mix of her certainty in her assumption that we're first years and lack of certainty in her statement that she's a second year.

So Suzumiya has managed to make a second year friend. Great for her.

Suzumiya broke the silence, as she does. "Isn't she cute? She'll totally be a great mascot! I mean, look at her! She's got top grade Moe looks, she's airheaded, she's friendly and she does what she's told!" she said in a way that made it sound like she's trying to impress me. "I'll bet that she can attract more guys than Asakura, if she tried!"

The same could be said for you.

I take a second look at Asahina, though, and make a closer analysis. There was a mix of beauty and childishness in her. Her brown (dyed?) hair was curled, hanging below her shoulders, and her smile revealed two rows of perfectly symmetrical ivory teeth, complementing her small face. She certainly doesn't look like she's our senpai. Neither her facial features nor her expression gave me the feeling like she was older than we were; in fact, they both remind me of a curious elementary school student. Her large eyes seemed to take in everything in the room like a vacuum, somehow being interested in everything around her at the same time. Kind of like my sister three years ago.

How about that?

Suzumiya grinned devilishly. "And then there's this!" Tightly, she grabbed Asahina Mikuru from behind with her hands.

"Aha?"

Suzumiya started to clutch at Asahina Mikuru's breast through her uniform.

"Ahahaha! Stop... stop... that feels funny...!"

For her part, Asahina Mikuru is less surprised as she is... enjoying herself. Laughing like she's being tickled, instead of screaming like she's being harassed.

"They're so big!" Suzumiya exclaimed. "You should try this Kyon!"

There are so many things wrong with this entire situation. Nagato keeps glancing at me, evidently hoping that I'll stop Suzumiya, or at least calm things down. In the time of the entire commotion she has already long stood up and is trying to find a way to get between Suzumiya and Asahina, but has made little progress.

As Suzumiya moves her hands to Asahina's skirt I finally stand up, being pushed far past my limit. I pull the two girls away from each other.

"That's enough! What the hell are you doing!?"

"They're really huge though! Why don't you try touching them yourself?"

"No!" I practically shout. I haven't raised my voice like this for a while. "What on earth is wrong with you!? What makes you think it's at all okay to just... sexually harass someone like that!?"

As I take in a breath, readying myself to escalate my anger a notch, I feel a light but firm hand on my shoulder. Looking back at the source of the grip, I am confronted with a worried smile on Asahina's face.

"It's okay," she says in a soothing tone. "It was just friendly banter, after all, and this kind of thing happens all the time, doesn't it?"

Suzumiya took up this chance to shove in a "Yeah, see Kyon? She gets it! Sheesh, why do you have to be so serious all the time?"

Why do I have to be so serious all the time? Well I'm sorry if not everyone in the world wants to join in on your silly games, Suzumiya-_san_.

I'm surprised, though, that Asahina-senpai of all people is defending her right now, after what seemed to me like obvious violation of personal space. Perhaps I just miscalculated; maybe some people really are fine with Suzumiya's eccentricity. Maybe she even enjoyed it. Thinking about it, Asahina looked like they were having fun, laughing all the while. That makes me the 'bad guy' for killing the moment.

I look to the more stable minded literature club president (who actually owns the room), hoping to garner some sort of support. After her signature pause for thought, though, she gave a small, courteous shrug and smile; something that everyone in the room took as an 'okay' sign.

This is what I get for trying to intervene in other people's lives. So you know what? Forget it. Let these girls do as they please. Just leave me out of it.

I sit on the chair closest to me and tune out.

In the ensuing hour, Suzumiya finally declares her 'club' to be the 'SOS brigade'. I didn't pay enough attention to know what the acronym stood for, nor listen to the debate about why it's a debate instead of an organisation or something. Ultimately, though, Asahina signed up under the literature club, since Suzumiya's club didn't officially exist yet.

Some time after that Suzumiya instructed us to 'be here every day after class', and left the room, leaving Asahina and Nagato to chat amongst themselves.

* * *

_Why do I bother? What's the point?_

_This place makes me sick..._

_I hate you all. Go away._

_Give me some alone time, damn it!_

_Who cares about aliens or time travel or psychic powers? There are things more important than that!_

_Why can't you just appreciate what you have?_

_Why didn't I?_

"... Kyon! Wake up!"

I jolt in shock. Since when was I sleeping?

"Wow... I know I'm not supposed to call you by that nickname, but it really works," the girl says. What was her name? Asahina, that's right. I learnt it just an hour ago. She continues to pretend lecture me the way my little sister would whenever our mother caught me doing something wrong. "I've called you just about every other name I could think of and you didn't so much as blink."

What names exactly have you been calling me?

And... how exactly does she know not to call me by my nickname? Did Nagato tell her?

"Hmm... you really weren't paying any attention in the entire conversation were you?" she says, more disappointed than surprised. "Though you were sitting zoned out and depressed like that the whole time. It's like you just flicked an 'off' switch in your brain."

It's a surprisingly useful mechanic. I recommend it to everyone. In fact, I'd recommend it to Suzumiya first and foremost. I liked it better when she didn't talk at all.

Asahina laughed a little. "You don't seem to like Suzumiya-san very much yet, do you?"

You seem to imply that I'll like her in future.

"Oh, time will tell, time will tell," she says, though with the same carefree playfulness. "Anyway, most students in clubs have already left. Yuki-chan and I are ready to call it a day too."

I see. I suppose you want me to clear myself of the room then.

I pick up my bag, and with a few basic stretches, I head out the door. Maybe I won't return. Yeah. That might be best. To just get out of this place while I can, and get as far, far away from Suzumiya as possible.

"You'll be back," I hear Asahina call out to me. I'd say she was reading my thoughts, only I didn't really try to hide them much. "I mean... where else would you rather be? Alone at home?"

With her last line I immediately turned back, staring at the brown haired beauty. For her part, she merely smiled at me, as though she had let off a corny children's joke. But despite her precocious actions and charming appearance, there was some sort of... detached, and almost sadistic gleam in her eyes; like a deity watching the daily sufferings of mortals below it.

If anything, that should've increased my resolve to leave. I should not want to be stuck together in a room with both Suzumiya _and_ this... what seems to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, who also somehow knows much more about me than she should.

Yet... I knew she was right. I'd more likely than not end up here every day, even if I complained about it.

* * *

**A/N: I originally hoped to get this chapter to cover more content, but felt like it would drag on too long. So I've split the original chapter into two chunks.**

**I still have much to plan, because the minor change I've done could cause major, major changes, and in a time-travel-loop reliant story like the Haruhi series, everything has to be pre-planned before you write it.**

**Also, I'm not sure when exactly to let out the 'big reveal' yet, because I intend this fanfic to cover approximately the first four books (mostly like the anime series plus the film, though with a lot cut out).**

**And no, the root change is actually something that goes before the Kunikida-Taniguchi-Kyon talk. Still, nice try, ****EMU10k.**


	3. Chapter 1 - III

**A/N: **The contents of this chapter are not finalised and are subject to changes. Maybe.

* * *

Morning routine is horrible. I think it's horrible for most people actually. Waking up too late and still not wanting to get up. Barely having time to have breakfast or brushing teeth. Making the mandatory march up the hill. By the time I get to my seat I'd have already expended all the energy I'd spent my sleep regenerating. I plod my bag down and slouch in my chair.

_Why does the morning have to come in the morning?_ I think to myself. A reasonable complaint I'd say. It'd be more expedient if morning came in the afternoon. Or if it didn't come at all.

"Look at you, Mr Popular," Taniguchi jests, leaning against a nearby desk. "Still tired from yesterday I see. If I was uncertain before, I'm certain now, you definitely found yourself a girlfriend."

I roll my eyes and shrug. I'm normally this tired in the morning anyway so Taniguchi's joke of an accusation has no base, therefore deserves no rebuttal.

Kunikida, who comes out from behind Taniguchi, asks, "So could you tell us what you were doing last afternoon? I remember you mentioning sometime before that you wanted to join a club right?"

"Yeah."

Naturally, Kunikida's next question is "What club did you join?"

"He joined the literature club," called a sweet, enchanting voice, answering in my stead. Asakura, who has revealed herself to have been eavesdropping on our conversation, joins our (semi)circle. You know it's rude to eavesdrop right? Not exactly the sort of role modeling a class representative should be doing.

She laughs at my comment and handwaving it aside. "As the class representative I should be concerned with the situations of the classmates I represent, shouldn't I?"

Touché. So care to explain how you found out that I joined the literature club only two days after I joined and before I had even told my two friends here?

"Oh, I found out from Nagato-san. She and I are practically neighbours, and fairly close friends."

I take a moment to think about it; somehow, Asakura and Nagato do certainly seem like they'd be on good terms. Both of them seem to be perfect to an unnatural degree in their own ways; flawless, but not conceited.

"I also hear that Suzumiya-san also joined the club," Asakura continued. "And that she's been helping Nagato-san recruit more members."

Either you're misinterpreting the story Nagato told you or she's outright lying. I might as well clear up this misunderstanding here and now.

"Suzumiya somehow got the idea of making her own club, and she's just doing it in the same room as the literature club," I say.

Taniguchi comments, "Yeah, that's Haruhi for you."

Asakura makes an expression as though processing the information a bit. "I suppose that explains why Nagato-san seemed a little worried about Suzumiya-san's presence. And here I thought that Suzumiya-san was finally adapting to high school life."

"Well she isn't, and it's quite off putting." I pause before I decide to add, "I'm actually thinking I might just drop the literature club with her around."

"That's a pity," Asakura says, shaking her head in disappointment. "Nagato-san seemed quite excited when she told me that you joined."

I see Taniguchi turn to me and whisper 'player' with a grin. Again I roll my eyes, listening to Asakura continue.

"Besides. Maybe Suzumiya-san will adjust eventually." She turned and started to walk off, but she glanced back with a charming smile as she tacked on, "And it might help you adjust too."

Her last comment made me want to say something, though I wasn't sure what. By the time I opened my mouth Suzumiya had entered the room, automatically adjourning the little meeting.

I suppose I should go back to sleep anyway. I close my eyes and drift into slumber as Suzumiya talks in my direction. Has she not caught onto the fact that I'm ignoring her?

* * *

The following days involved the literature clubroom becoming increasingly cramped. The three girls each had a knack for bringing in their own wacky additions to the room.

For instance; one day Suzumiya suddenly declared "We need a computer!"

It was a ridiculous thing to announce all of a sudden, considering Nagato had already mentioned to me several times that she had been planning to buy a computer. Indeed, after looking up from her science book and doing her signature pause for thought the literature club president said, "Yes, I have been planning to purchase one with club funds, but I..."

Suzumiya cut her off with a joyous smile and her palm against the desk. "Yeah, but all that talk and we still don't _have_ a computer! We need a computer right at this moment!"

Since the moment you said that just passed and the world has not ended your statement appears to be false.

Asahina, talking half to herself and half to the rest of us, said, "Hmm... I don't really understand a need for computers."

"Of course we need a computer! It's the digital age!" Suzumiya 'explained'.

I hear Asahina joke out loud to herself "Really? And here I thought it was the bronze age..." At least... I think she was joking. Nagato seemed to pause in shock before smiling wryly at the comment, so evidently she found it to be a joke.

Either she didn't hear the comment, chose to ignore it, or disapproved, Suzumiya plowed on with her case. "Look, we're going to obtain a computer now! Come with me!"

Asahina gleefully complied as though she were invited on a field trip. "Ooh? Are we going to the electronic store?"

"Of course not! That's too far away! There's somewhere way closer!" Suzumiya said.

The two marched proudly out of the room to ruin somebody's day.

Nagato, after flipping a page of her book and adjusting her glasses, opens her mouth to let out her words of wisdom.

"I know you don't like to associate with Suzumiya-san," an accurate observation, "but I'm slightly worried as to what those two will be doing."

So what? You want me to follow them? No thanks. I like to keep a low profile, and being seen with Suzumiya is the opposite of keeping a low profile.

"You know, if Suzumiya does something terrible your infamy will go up with hers." The girl closes her book. "I'd follow them myself, but Suzumiya-san tends to not listen to what I say."

You seem to assume that she listens to what I say. Still, I see Nagato's point, and she's probably going to keep pestering me about it until I agree. At least she's asking nicely.

I stand up. "Very well. I'll go have a look."

Nagato bows her head in gratitude, saying "Thank you, vice president," as I leave.

I step out into the hallway and glance to my left and right. Suzumiya said it was close by after all. I remembered a computer club around here when I was first contemplating what clubs to join. Seeing the club label two rooms from our own I make my way towards it.

Sure enough, glancing through the open door I see Suzumiya and Asahina on the inside, with four male students looking completely baffled.

Immediately upon seeing me Suzumiya shoves a camera into my hands. "Kyon! What took you so long!?" she said, though she still seemed more elated than angry. "Never mind! We're almost finished here anyway! Hold onto that camera! It holds all the evidence!"

I suppose to understand the context of the situation I need to take a second glance at the room.

One of the older guys in the room has already collapsed onto his knees and is looking at me like I was his executioner. Asahina was smiling, satisfied with whatever it was that she had been doing before, and was adjusting her clothes. I look at some of the photos in the camera memory and my mouth drops.

If I didn't know Suzumiya and Asahina as well as I did I would've thought just by looking at these pictures that the young men in this room had tried to have their way with Asahina. And now these girls are going to take advantage of these pictures to have_ their_ way with these poor boys. Typical blackmailing tactics.

The one on his knees on the ground, who I'm guessing is the computer club president, shakily asks, "Who are you...? Are you with them?"

"Hmm...? Oh, I'm the literature club vice president," I say, hoping that it would dissociate me from the two girls. However, the computer club president's face becomes even more dread filled than before.

"Darn...! So you're the boss..." he says. "And I was hoping our reinforcements had arrived..."

Boss? What do you mean?

Pointing at Suzumiya and Asahina, and then at me, he curses. "You... all you people from the literature club... Luddites! Picking on the new to conserve the old ways!" He starts making wild claims on how our 'paper fortresses' will inevitably crumble to make way for the future or something, while his fellow computer club members try to calm him down lest they incur my wrath.

I turn to Asahina, asking, "You guys told them you're from the literature club?"

She smiled with more innocence than I would've thought humanly possible. "I am though, aren't I? I joined the other day. Besides, they didn't get it when we told them we were from the SOS brigade."

Nagato is not going to be happy that her club name is being used as the banner of chaos.

Suzumiya, pulling out a piece of paper, walks around the room before stopping at one of the flashier looking computers. "This one!" she says.

"No! We just bought that one! We saved for months to buy that!"

As Suzumiya tugged at the wires and cables and as the computer club members pleaded I decided to do them a favour, and erased all the photos on the camera.

"We don't really need the newest model, do we?" I ask Suzumiya. "I mean, these guys can do better work with these computers than we could."

"No, Haru-chan is right," Asahina says. "That's definitely the one."

And my attempt to compromise is immediately terminated. I suppose that's what I get for trying.

Having had enough I report back to the literature club president.

Not long after I begin to explain things, Suzumiya had hauled the stolen computer over, and had even brought over the whole computer club, ordering them to set the computer up and install internet cables from their room to ours so we could leech off of their internet. Throughout all this Asahina kept watching the boys work, teasing and asking insultingly simple questions about the computer club or computers in general. After being brought up to speed Nagato kept apologising for the misconduct, bowing and repeatedly promising that it would never happen again; though she said nothing about giving the computer back, nor paying for it, since it was above her budget.

This ends up becoming almost routine.

Suzumiya keeps coming up with new ideas, Asahina helps get the idea working, and Nagato gives her approval through lack of disapproval. Add on the fact that Nagato brings in furniture for 'club activities' and Asahina bringing in things on the basis that we 'might need it later', the once relatively spacious and empty clubroom starts to feel suffocating.

And the above continues to apply to Suzumiya's press-ganging of a new member.

* * *

As usual, by the time I got to the clubroom that day Nagato was already sitting in her usual position, reading; more like a painted figure on a vase than an actual girl. I plonked myself into my own seat and started glancing at the books on the shelf.

Asahina later walked in and excitedly pulled out a brand new box of Othello and placed it onto the desk, setting it up and glancing up at us with an obvious invitation to join her. I recall having had an Othello board at home. I think I probably left it in my sister's room from the last time I played it with her years ago.

"I don't recall Othello being a literature activity," I said. Not that I was against it or anything.

Asahina tutted, "That's where you're wrong. I actually read about this game in a book the other day, which makes this a literature activity by extension. Anyway, I thought it seemed really interesting so I went and bought a set." She said the last bit looking up at me, evidently trying to press me into playing with her.

So be it. It's not like I have anything better to do.

"Well I'll go first then," I say, "since you just bought the set, and probably don't know the rules yet."

Putting down one of my pieces onto the board with a 'smack', and flip one of her pieces.

Upon seeing this, Asahina's face suddenly goes from a bright smile of excitement to a gaping mouth of confusion.

"Eh...? What? But..." she keeps stuttering. "That's not how the book said this game was played."

Well this is how Othello is actually played.

"Really? Are you sure? Maybe the book was old and the rules changed..."

Maybe. Othello was originally based off of the late 19th century game Reversi with the modern international version of Othello being invented in Ibaraki in the 1970s. I don't think the rules should've changed that much though.

Asahina continued to try and justify her own position. "Well, maybe different places have different rules for this game. A lot of long lasting board games have different rules per region."

Yes, except this game has an international standard, and this version is based on the international standard.

Asahina pouts, scratching her curled hair, trying to think of a way to keep herself in the debate. "Then the book I read was based on the national standard."

Didn't I say earlier that the international version was based on the rules invented in Ibaraki?

"That's stupid," Asahina crossed her arms, displeased that I wasn't letting her have her way.

Around this time I notice that Nagato had stopped reading her book and has been watching the two of us argue about the rules of Othello for a while now.

"Is there something you aren't telling us?" I ask.

Nagato flashes one of her fleeting, amused smiles. "Go," she said. "She asked about an ancient game with black and white pieces, so I lent her a book on Go."

Ah. I see the confusion.

Asahina, glancing to and fro, not having caught on, asks, "Hmm? What are you talking about? This is the game with the black and white pieces isn't it?"

Before Nagato or I could properly enlighten Asahina, the door slammed open.

"Hey guys! Sorry for the wait!"

Suzumiya greeted us as she pulled in a male student by the sleeve.

"This is today's new mysterious transfer student, and fifth member of the SOS brigade! His name is..."

Suzumiya stopped, and glanced at him with a 'this is your cue' look.

The poor boy stood there, flabbergasted and lost. Awkwardly, he bowed.

"Err... I'm K... Koizumi..." he murmurs. "Itsuki... First Year Ninth Class..."

'Mysterious' by what standards? This guy looks like a pretty normal person to me.

Straightening up, looking at his shoes, he continued to stutter. "I only just transferred this morning... so I haven't made any friends yet... so erm..." he takes a deep breath, bowing again. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Immediately after he finished, Suzumiya patted Koizumi on the back several times, with Koizumi shuddering considerably with each blow. "Very good Koizumi-kun," she says, like a teacher praising an introverted child for introducing themselves. Somehow, I feel like that's exactly what just happened.

Koizumi is a lean person, with a handsome looking face and fairly stylish hairstyle. His uniform is in prime condition, and he speaks politely enough, giving an overall feel of a well brought up gentleman-to-be. Unfortunately, he has a noticeable slouch, and has thus far avoided eye contact. If he had just a smidgeon of confidence he'd be flawless; maybe like a male version of Asakura.

"This is the SOS Brigade club room. I'm the Brigade chief, Suzumiya Haruhi, and these are my suboordinates one, two, and three."

In your dreams.

Koizumi, somehow more lost and confused than before, churns out, "Wait... I thought..." he takes a step out of the room to look at the label. "Isn't this the literature club room...?"

"I know right? I keep wanting to replace that label to avoid future confusion, but Yuki-chan and Kyon won't let me!"

"Because this is actually the literature club room," I mutter.

Koizumi, still in confusion, looks at the rest of us for the first time. As he does so, his mouth drops and eyes widen in realisation of... something. I'm not sure. What is it that he's realising?

Asahina, upon making eye contact with Koizumi, immediately smiles and waves cheerfully. "Hey Itsuki-chan," she says, beckoning him over to the chair next to him. "Welcome to the clubroom."

When did you get on first name basis with this guy?

Awkwardly, Koizumi bows his head, though he doesn't yet walk over to the chair that Asahina has designated for him. "H... hello... Asahina-senpai..."

Suzumiya looks from Koizumi to Asahina and back, just as perplexed as I am. "Oh? You two have met each other?"

The response was a mixture of a confident "Yes" from Asahina, and a "Not really" from Koizumi (who's voice quietly drifts into some odd explanation about how they know each other).

Well these introductions are going smoothly aren't they?

Next, Koizumi turns to look at Nagato, whom he stares at in... fear? It's like he's expecting her to jump up and attack him or something.

For a moment, the two stare at each other in silence.

Nagato, standing up from her chair, bows at him. "We haven't met yet. I'm Nagato Yuki, the president of the literature club. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Koizumi awkwardly bows in return after a mirroring pause (does he pause as much as Nagato does? Is pausing before speaking a new trend I missed?), "Yes... pleased to meet you too..." he says, still eying her nervously, before adding, "Weren't you from..."

Suddenly interrupting (and for once, not pausing before speaking), Nagato says "No. You must've mistaken me for someone else."

A heavy silence ensues, with Nagato staring daggers into Koizumi's eyes. The poor boy nearly collapses on the spot.

Breaking the two from their deadlock Asahina pulls Koizumi down to the seat she has been trying to get him to sit in since he first arrived.

"Don't worry, she'll warm up to you in a few months," she says knowingly.

Nagato. Asahina. Koizumi. The way they acted just now... there is definitely history between the three of them. Bad history.

Theoretically, my turn for introduction should be next. However, Suzumiya with her uncanny knack for interrupting things, drops her bag on the desk (and Othello board) between us.

"Right! Now that introductions are in order we need to move on to the next thing on the agenda!" Suzumiya declares. "Handing out flyers!"

Knowing Suzumiya, 'handing out flyers' will most likely involve some sort of attention magnet. With that knowledge I take it as a signal to get up and leave and am swift to do so.

"Where are you going!? You're going to miss the best part!" Suzumiya demands. "Fine, stay out there then. It'll be a surprise for you."

Ignoring her, I close the door to the clubroom as I head out. Only moments afterwards it opens again and Koizumi follows me into the hallway.

"Hey," he calls out to me, forcing on a polite smile. He still needs a bit of practice with his posture though. "Err... we haven't been introduced yet. K... Kyon was it?"

I shrug. "Just about everyone in the school calls me that. I suppose adding you to the list won't hurt. "

He nods. Looking back at the 'literature club' sign he begins to ask, "So... this is actually the literature club then...?"

"Yeah. Any interest in joining?"

I only meant it as an offhand comment but Koizumi starts to serious contemplate it.

"Maybe..." he says, after a fair while of thinking. "I don't really read... and I definitely don't write... but..." he gives a broken, genuine smile. "I... have a feeling that I should join... yeah."

"You sure?" I ask. "I mean, with Suzumiya attempting whatever it is she's doing it may be quite a hassle. " It's already a hassle to me.

Koizumi shakes his head, smiling a bit more confident now. "Somehow I think that won't be a problem. So... I'll definitely be joining."

From the fifteen minutes I've known this guy it must've taken a lot of resolve to convince himself to join. Though... I think his relation to Nagato and Asahina were probably factors in his joining.

"Oh, they were part of my consideration, but so were you and Suzumiya. I have a feeling that all of us will be closely tied in the future," Koizumi says, somehow reading my thoughts.

_Really? Well what if I drop the club? I've been seriously considering it._

Again, answering the thoughts in my mind, Koizumi says, "I really think you should stick around. I mean... it's not easy to make new friends in a new school. It's a good change of pace for you."

I don't exactly see going at Suzumiya's pace as healthy.

Koizumi gives off a weak chuckle. "I suppose not... but if it weren't for her I wouldn't have been brought to this club in the first place. I'm certain the universe has everything planned out. I'm just really glad that I've been able to join into an existing group of friends so quickly after I've transferred."

In the time Koizumi and I stood there talking Suzumiya must've finished whatever 'surprise' she had planned for the flyer handing. The door swung open by her hand once again. And surprised we were. Both Koizumi and I looked in bafflement; one could hear Koizumi eating his own words.

"Tada!" Suzumiya said with her beaming grin. "What do you think?"

"It's a little tight around the chest," Asahina comments, doing a little twirl, "but it's kind of cute."

Nagato merely sat in her chair with an expression not too different from Koizumi's... and probably mine.

There stood Suzumiya and Asahina, two incredibly beautiful bunny girls. Much of their cleavage and backs and arms exposed, net stockings around their legs, and bunny ears on their heads... the outfit would suit them perfectly if not for the fact that it's completely wrong.

"With these outfits we'll be able to get all the flyers distributed in no time!" Grabbing the flyers on the table Suzumiya marched right past Koizumi and me. "Come on, Mikuru-chan!"

"Okay!" Asahina skipped after her like she was going following Suzumiya to go get Halloween candy. Amazing, considering they were wearing high heels as well.

Stunned silence once again.

"So," I turn to Koizumi. "Glad to make new friends, huh?"

Koizumi said nothing. He could only continue staring at the remains of the scene in shell shock. By 'remains' I mean the clothes of the two girls on the floor.

Nagato, having recovered from her initial shock, kneels down from her chair, picking up the pieces of clothing and folding them neatly. Kind of like how my mother would fold dried clothes.

"It was all so... barbaric. What is human civilisation coming to? " she shook her head in disbelief of the situation still. "Vice president? Could you please try and stop them before things escalate?"

Yeah. The last time I tried they ended up taking a computer and I was accused of being their accomplice. Sorry Nagato, I'm out.

In fact, since their reputation will likely soar by the end of the week, I'm going to try and distance myself from those two as much as possible so I'll be dropping the literature club from today onwards.

Nagato immediately dropped the brassier she was holding and turned to look at me. Koizumi did much the same.

Nagato was definitely taking her pause before trying to talk me out of it, but I head out the door before she's finished her processing.

I walk right by Koizumi, who was too nervous to try and stop me.

I make my way down the hallway and out to the gate. There was a large crowd at the gate by the time I got there, all trying to see the two bunny girls handing out flyers. Shoving my way past the crowd, I do my best to tune it all out.

However, my attempts to ignore the situation become difficult as I notice that more and more eyes start staring in my direction. Judging. Picking me out as different from them.

"Kyon-chan, wait up."

And my attempt to dissociate myself from the bunny girl situation shatters.

_Sigh._ _I hate you all. Go to hell. Why me? Why now? Why do I bother? Why does anyone bother? Just jump in a ditch, all of you._

"Kyon-chan!"

I feel a hand on my shoulder. Grudgingly, I turn to face Asahina in her bright red, revealing outfit.

"Are you okay?" she asks quite concernedly. "You seem out of it today... more than usual ."

"It's nothing," I lie. Asahina can tell I'm lying I'm sure, but I don't care. I just want out.

Thankfully, Asahina doesn't press. I think it's the fact that she is, in the end, an upperclassman; an extra year of maturity counts for a lot. That and the fact that she has thus far shown to know things she shouldn't.

So has Nagato and Koizumi. And now that I think of it, Asakura too.

"Okay, but before you go I have something for you." Asahina reaches into the bag of flyers she has on her shoulder.

"I don't really need a flyer..." I begin to say, but then I notice that she isn't pulling out a flyer. Instead, she gives me a...

A bookmark?

I flip it over a few times. There were abstract patterns on both sides... like a child's attempt at writing, mixed with geometrical shapes. Not exactly the type of bookmark I'd expect people to give me, but alright. I don't get why though. Is this a literature club thing? I haven't told Asahina that I quit yet, have I?

"Think of it as a good luck charm," she says with a wink. "You might understand by the evening."

"Hey! Let go of me!" I hear Suzumiya cry. Looking over in her direction I see that the teachers had arrived to try and put an end to her folly.

"Looks like I have to go. See you later," Asahina says as she trots happily to Suzumiya and the teachers.

Leaving just me and the bookmark. And what felt like a thousand pairs of eyes, looking at me. Mocking. Jeering.

Putting the bookmark in my pocket I lower my head, and force my way through the crowd. Down the hill, back to my home.

* * *

I sat on my bed with nothing much to do. I'd ended the day earlier than I planned, although 'planned' is too strong a word.

By the time I'd gotten back I was greeted by pure silence, as I often am. I tried studying but there is a surprising limit to the amount that a person can study before running out. I then tried to read on of Nagato's books that she'd lent me but they were all non-fiction books, and it felt no different from studying. I'd long finished the few fiction books she'd given me, which were all classic science fiction novellas.

I really need to give her back all those books. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow. It means I'll have to go to the clubroom one last time. On the other hand, I don't think Nagato would mind too much if I don't give these books back.

And so I sit there, staring at my ceiling in silence. Everyone else in the house was out for reasons I'd forgotten... they told me something about it in the morning. Something about my sister, maybe.

I reach into my pocket and pull out the bookmark that Asahina gave me.

"You might understand by the evening," was what she said. Glancing at the time and noting the lack of light in my room, it was already evening. In fact, I should've had dinner two hour ago.

As I think about all the food that I could've but didn't cook I suddenly hear my cell phone ringing.

_Huh? My parents would just call the landline..._

Picking up the phone I look at the number and the name of the contact. I squint for a while due to the room that is ill lit save for the stars and moon and the light off of the phone itself. After making out the characters, though, I suddenly feel my heart skip a beat.

On the phone, in capital Latin letters, was the name, "KOIZUMI".

Ignoring the fact that I had never given him my phone number... after all, maybe he asked the school or some of my friends for my number... no... what frightened me was how his name was on my contacts list that it would show up with his name when he called.

I hesitate. Part of my mind falls into childish, primal fear;_ what if this is the start of a horror story?_ It asks_. But hanging up might just make it worse._ Caught between fear of picking up, and hanging up, I suppress my emotions with the best of my rational thought, and answer.

"Hello? Koizumi? Is that you?"

"Ah... Kyon, it is you..." he says with a sigh of relief. "It's... it's the strangest thing you know...? I don't think you'd believe me if I told you..."

He lets out a nervous chuckle.

"Try me," I say.

Realising that neither one of us is actually joking Koizumi's laughter cuts off. "Right... well... the thing is... I was looking through the contacts in my phone... I don't know why, I just felt like I should check... and then suddenly I see your 'Kyon' written at the bottom of the list, so I wanted to check if it was you. Turns out it actually was."

"Yeah... same here..." I murmur.

_Just what on Earth is going on here?_

"Hey, Kyon..." Koizumi says, his voice suddenly low and quiet... and a lot more serious. "This might sound... strange... but I think... you'll understand when you see it..."

'I'll understand'. Just like Asahina said I'd 'understand' in the evening.

There is definitely something up here. Part of me wants nothing to do with any of this. The other part of me wants to tell Koizumi to hurry the hell up and tell me what it is. Everyone seems to be in some sort of secret circle and I'm locked out of the loop.

After a painfully long pause, significantly more dreadful than the ones Nagato has, Koizumi says. "Look at the sky."

Once again I hesitate. My subconscious mind screams_ don't. Do not look outside. Whatever you do, do not look outside, or it's all over._ And yet my head ends up turning to the window, and my eyes trace towards the sky.

Then I see it. It hits me. The weather. Storm clouds with no rain, strong wind... and through the clouds I see a shooting star.

It was _exactly_ like that day... that day three years ago.

Dropping my phone and dragging my coat onto my body, shoving the bookmark into a pocket, I rush down the stairs, step into my shoes and grab my bicycle.

"Why!?" I ask out loud. "Why!? Why!? Why!? Why!? WHY!? WHY!?"

I cycle as fast as my legs can move, ignoring the burning pain with each pedal, ignoring the difficulty of getting up and down hills. I go as fast as I can to the center of the storm, accelerated by the wind blowing in that very direction. The trees rustling, bending like they're kowtowing toward the storm.

_It's all coming back! It's all coming back! It is exactly like that day!_

I zoom past several people and cars before I make my way near the train station. Near the centre of the storm was a park, mostly walled off.

In my haste to turn towards the park mixed with the strong winds I fall off my bicycle. Quickly I pick myself up and keep rushing towards the park. While I would otherwise first find a place to lock up my bicycle I really didn't care this one time. _It can wait!_ I say to myself._ Even if I lose my bicycle... this is more important!_

I finally enter the park and slow down, my legs being able to carry me no further. My muscles cry to me for rest, my chest thumps, and my lungs plead for oxygen as they spew carbon dioxide. Barely able to stand or see, with all the wind swirling towards the clouds above me; the sounds of nearby leaves thrown violently across the air, branches snapping off, mixing into what sounded like the sky ripping itself apart.

"Kyon!" I hear a familiar voice of a young woman; the one most likely to join me to a location like this. "You're here too!?"

I turn to look at Suzumiya. Hair flailing wildly from the wind. Her face was that of the fullest joy, like she had finally found an alien.

"What do you think it is!?" she asks me, looking up at the centre of the storm; a swirling vortex of smoke and cloud. "It can't be a natural storm, can it!?"

I pant, unable to answer yet, completely short of breath. I cast my gaze down for a moment to see another figure in the distance, directly below the centre of the vortex. It too, was looking up, but the figure was facing away from us, so I couldn't see their face.

"Hey Kyon!" Suzumiya shouts, pointing at the figure. "Is... do you think that's...!?"

_There's no doubt about it._ I say to myself. _I'll recognise that perfect and serene posture anywhere._

Then, there is loud, booming deep bellowing noise from above... like the heavens had finally found itself a voice for the first time.

"ULLA!" it howled; a long, drawn out sound. So loud that the ground below me shook. It was a strange noise, so foreign, I can't describe it. Perhaps you could say it was like a deep, low siren running up and down the scale. Mix that together with a foghorn and you would get a sound vaguely similar to what I just heard. The grandness of the sound and the signals it sent to me filled me with dread and terror, more than I would feel normally. Yet, despite the volume, my ears felt no pain. I looked up at the sky, seeking out the source of the noise. "ULLA!"

"What is it Kyon? What are you looking for?" Suzumiya asks, turning to me, not at all reflecting my terror.

What? Can't she hear it? The noise! It's so loud!

"ULLA!"

"What noise? What is it Kyon!? Tell me!"

I couldn't bring myself to say anything, or to even look down at Suzumiya. I could only look up at the sky, entranced by the magnificent monstrosity of the situation.

A flash. Almost like lightning...

And then... I saw it. The clouds began to disappear, with glistening like a running river evaporating. Through the clouds I began to see the night sky, or so I thought at first. Lights, blinking, shimmering, against a sky of blackish blue. Then more lights began to appear. Soon the lights begin to turn on and off in definite patterns rather than random, aimless flickering. The black surface above me began to take shape, and my eyes took it all in at once in horror.

"ULLA!" It continued to boom. "ULLA!"

It was about the size of a cruise ship in diameter and floated at most a hundred meters above us, and I _swear_ it was getting closer. Shaped like a perfect circular disk shape above us with lights and emitting smoke and noise.

It was a UFO.

"What is it!?" Suzumiya began to yell at me, not at all looking up at the sky. "What do you see!? Tell me! I order you!"

She can't see it. Of all people, she can't see it. And I can. After all that has happened... why now? _WHY NOW!?_

The centre of the UFO opens up; a small circle in the middle of the larger one, a tiny pupil opening up in the iris, letting out a faint beam of light that shone perfectly below it at the figure in the distance that stood there, lighting the figure up amidst the darkness of the night.

The figure... Nagato... she then turned slowly to look at us... rotating on the spot without moving her feet or any part of her body. She looked at us with not the graceful, ladylike face of the literature club president, no. She looked at us with cold eyes... envious eyes. Through her eyes I caught a glimpse into her mind...

A mind far greater than our own; capable of beating the sum total of humanity combined on its own... a mind vast... and cool... and unsympathetic. She watches us the way humans scientists would watch microorganisms breed and multiply in a drop of water. That was all we were to her. Microorganisms; barely even animate, such primitive forms of life.

Nagato... the girl... she reached into her pocket, and pulled out what seemed to be a hand held mirror. But she didn't turn it to herself; instead, she turned it slowly and surely towards us, the faint light of the beam above her reflecting off the mirror as she does so.

"Oh NO!" I immediately turn to run but I'm too late. The invisible streaks of light off the mirror have all but caught up to me. With what little time I have left I wrap my arms around Suzumiya, and cover her with my body.

"Wha... WHAT ARE YOU D...!?"

I don't hear her finish though, as I soon feel a feeling of burning against my back. Cold... like ice burns... but colder.

_I'm going to die here. Goodbye._

* * *

**A/N: I quite like this chapter. Because this is where things start to evidently go off the canon rails. This means that we are finally past the 'introduction' and in the 'actual story' part.**

**I've got a lot of ideas in my mind right now which I don't have time to write down, but also a lot of gaps. Hoping I'll be able to fill those as I go along.**

**By the way, I do intend to eventually merge the different parts of chapter 1 into a larger, singular chapter, but I've so far written them piecemeal, because it's easier to post updates this way.**


	4. Chapter 2 - I

**A/N: **This chapter is subject to future editing and changes. Future chapters are also not guaranteed.

* * *

_This... this is what I get for chasing things. This is what I get for wandering about and going into things I shouldn't go into. It's all the same... just like three years ago... I haven't changed at all... I haven't changed at all... how foolish!_

_Just go to hell..._

"It's remarkable that you aren't dead, though. I blame the time traveller."

_What are you talking about? I died just now. I saw a giant UFO and then I was blasted by a laser._

"It wasn't a laser, but that isn't important."

_Yeah, whatever. The thing is, I died. All because I went out looking for aliens. You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes. My parents would be so disappointed in me._

"Vice president, open your eyes."

_How am I supposed to open my eyes if I'm..._

Wait. I'm not dead yet?

I open my eyes, slowly sitting up. I feel cold and my head is in a daze, but I'm certain none of this is what it feels like to be dead. Not that I would know what being dead feels like.

Kneeling next to me like a Buddha statue was Nagato, still in her school uniform with my coat folded on her lap.

We're still in the park. Nagato and I, sitting and staring at each other, and Suzumiya lying on the ground next to me. No UFO in sight. The storm that had brought me here in the first place was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey! Hold on, what happened!?" I immediately shout. Nagato winced a fair bit.

"Quiet, please," she said, voice in a whisper. "Whatever you want me to explain can we do it somewhere more private? My apartment is just over there."

She pointed at a nearby apartment building. Yeah, that's really not far... but something about the idea of going to the apartment of a person that just fired a laser at me is not appealing.

"Like I said, it wasn't..." she stops herself, shaking her head. "Please, just follow along." She stands up, still holding on to my coat. "And could you bring her with you? We shan't leave her out here alone."

What. I just saw a flying saucer float above your head, you tried to kill me, and now I'm expected to follow you and _also_ carry Suzumiya with me? I should be running for my life right now!

Noticing that I'm not following her, Nagato looks at me like she just tasted something sour. "You know, if you still want to keep a low profile you shouldn't just stand below a UFO landing site. Who knows? I might call the mother-ship to come back."

She spoke in a lighthearted tone, but I was less than amused. Regardless, I picked Suzumiya up, carrying her upon my back, and walked to Nagato cautiously as she led the way.

For about a minute we went in silence. I didn't feel like talking. As much as I would normally have questions in my mind, all I wanted to do by that point was to leave as soon as possible.

Nagato kept glancing back at me every few steps. I hadn't seen her so flustered since I had first joined the literature club.

"You seem rather ravenous, by the way," she commented. "I'll take it you haven't had dinner yet?"

I'm sorry, but that is completely out of context; lacking in contribution to the situation in any way. I ignore her attempts at small talk.

"Maybe we should get something to eat on the way," she continues. I don't really feel like carrying Suzumiya into a restaurant. No thanks. No comment.

"Mm... do your parents know you're out so late?" she asks.

I'd ask you the same. Except I wouldn't. No comment.

We arrive at the apartment building without another word. Nagato brushes her pass against the sensor at the door. We headed in the elevator together, when Nagato tried once again to start conversation.

"You must be cold," she says.

Congratulations on your detective skills. I'm hungry and cold and I have no idea where my parents are. I'm also tired. And I'm carrying a girl on my back, while another girl who nearly killed me just asked me to follow her to her apartment. I think I'm probably less than happy about this whole situation.

"I'll make some warm tea," she concludes.

That's a nice gesture, but I think you could also start with giving me back my coat.

It's odd, though. I don't know why I feel so cold in this time of the year. It might have something to do with the laser. Or... I think it was more like a freeze ray.

Nagato only shook her head. Apparently it isn't a freeze ray either.

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor, and Nagato led us to the room numbered 708. Opening the door she walked inside, glancing at me to see if I was doing the same.

Skeptical as I was, I made sure that there were no obvious traps inside before I walked in.

It was at this moment I felt a stir from the previously limp body behind me.

"Mm... w... what...?" Suzumiya gradually opened her eyes. "Wha...? Let go of me!"

"Whoa!"

I feel a force like a bag of bricks smash against my back and soon find myself on the floor.

_I hate you all. I hate you all. I hate you all._

"What do you think you're doing!?" the now awakened and angered girl spat. I suppose her reaction to all this is fairly normal; it'd be nice if she could be normal in less violent ways. "Where am I!?"

Nagato rushed over to lift me up from the ground while speaking to Suzumiya in a voice like a nurse trying to calm a furious patient. "It's okay... please don't shout. This is my apartment."

"Yuki?" Suzumiya looked at Nagato for a moment. "You have a lot of explaining to do! Both of you!"

"Certainly... but please, keep it down or you'll disturb the neighbours," the reserved girl says, still trying to keep everything in a hush-voice as she closes the door behind us.

For a moment I was surrounded by darkness and quiet. It was comforting in its familiarity, however brief it was. It had to end, though, when Nagato switched on the light, illuminating the room.

The room itself was... definitely high-end for an apartment. It was fairly spacious, with expensive curtains and a large balcony outside.

The furnishings were all things I'd say were fairly pricey, too. A sizeable bonsai tree in the corner, a polished bookshelf far more impressive than the one in the literature clubroom, a small glass dinner table with a bowl of fresh flowers in the middle. These were all fairly normal things you'd expect in a decent home.

Then there were things that one wouldn't expect to affordable or even conceivable to be placed in a normal household, but things one could expect from Nagato's scientific mind: an armillary sphere, a high powered telescope on the balcony, a scale model of a nuclear power plant. Suzumiya and I ended up finding ourselves staring at a long fish tank which was inhabited by starfish, angelfish, jellyfish, cuttlefish eels, turtles,...

It's like Nagato lives in a museum.

"Interesting creatures, aren't they?" Nagato comments over our backs. From her reflection on the glass of the fish tank I see that she's placing a set of tea onto the table. "Aquatic life. Quite common on Earth; a planet which has water covering three quarters of its surface."

I'll take it you don't see a lot of fish where you come from. Or water.

Nagato gives a half-smile. "No, not really."

Suzumiya glances between us like we're plotting against her. "What are you two talking about? You know something that I don't, Kyon! Tell me what it is!"

Let Nagato explain. I'm still not too sure about the situation myself.

We sit down at the table, with Suzumiya next to me, and the two of us across from Nagato, who placed a tea cup in front of us and filled each cup.

Suzumiya next to me kept squirming and fidgeting, increasingly restless and agitated at Nagato's pace. Nagato was acting slower than usual, taking her time filling the cups, and then taking the time to drink cup of tea down in several slow sips.

"Could you hurry up?" I say, voicing Suzumiya's impatience for her. To be honest I don't want to overstay either, so I want this over with quickly myself.

Nagato seemingly ignored me, though. When she finished her cup of tea she closed her eyes and started to breathe in and out. Meditating.

_This is a waste of time..._

Finally, Nagato opened her mouth to speak. "It seems that the other two have elected to have me ousted first..." Looking at us, after another painstaking pause for thought, Nagato explained. "I think you must have worked it out by now, but I'll state it anyway:

"Yes. I am an alien."

The truth came out at last. Actually, I don't think Suzumiya had found out about it yet, since I hear (or rather, I don't hear) a noticeable stunned silence from her direction. As for myself... I knew something was up for a while now. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

I down my cup of tea in a single gulp. Nagato kindly refilled it.

"You know that's not funny, right?" Suzumiya says. She sounds more annoyed than excited. Nonetheless, the budding doubt in her mind of Nagato's true nature has been watered.

"I'm not trying to be funny," Nagato says, slightly perplexed. She turned to me, somehow expecting me to say something.

Leave me out of this. This is your problem. You deal with it.

"Well if you're an alien, tell me where you're from," Suzumiya says, unconvinced.

"Fourth planet from the star," Nagato said, without pause. After a pause, she clarified, "Mars."

Suzumiya's expression became even more doubtful.

To be honest, I'm not sure if Nagato really is from Mars. I'm sure that scientists have already disproven the likelihood of life on Mars long ago. Hence Suzumiya's reaction.

"That's stupid," Suzumiya said in disgust. "Here I thought you were going to give me a decent explanation... turns out you're just treating me as a joke. "

Nagato sighed, shaking her head. "You believe me, right?" she asked, turning to me.

I wanted to say 'no' to spite her. After everything I just saw tonight having Nagato as an alien was something I wanted to refuse. However, seeing everything I just saw tonight simply made it impossible to deny.

I kept my silence.

As much as Suzumiya next to me acted cynical of Nagato's story it was hard to just ignore what she had seen. Even if she didn't see the UFO or the laser, the fact that Nagato was underneath the storm cloud's centre and her other weird habits were enough to warrant her a degree of uniqueness.

"If you were going to pretend you're an alien you could've made up a more believable story," Suzumiya complains. The very fact that she would complain at all is proof that she is still interested in the topic, rather than dismissing it as useless talk as she would our classmates. "Mars is incapable of sustaining life."

"It is," Nagato agreed. "Hence why I'm on Earth. "

"Let me guess..." Suzumiya said, already making a face of snide disbelief of whatever Nagato has yet to say. "You're planet is dying and you're part of an invasion force that's going to wipe out all puny Earthling humans and colonise Earth as your new home?"

"Yes." Though there was a pause it was not even a microsecond longer than her usual pauses. That lack of extra hesitation was just a little jarring.

Nagato spoke the way a university professor would give a lecture on quantum mechanics being utilised in plant photosynthesis. "To be precise, our planet has long ceased to be able to sustain its local life. I think it'd be around the time of the midway between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods that everything started dying out. At such a time the dominant intelligence on the planet is not too different from homo sapiens on modern Earth.

"The first of the intelligent beings attempted many things to prolong their stay on their native planet, and ultimately failed and fell into chaos and ultimate extinction. All traces of their civilisation lost, they were succeeded by a breed of unrelated life form which had adapted to the conditions which their preceding race found uninhabitable. They soon realised the doomed state of the planet, but they too failed to truly solve the issue.

"The above cycle repeats itself for almost the entirety of the time between the original intelligent Martian species to the present. Each new successor living off of borrowed time and dying off due to their inability to adapt to new conditions... and now with the core of our home planet long dead and nearly no atmosphere left we are inevitably the last possible generation of Martians... far, far ahead in evolution, and yet so far behind in our potential solutions, we are as alien to them as we are to you.

"It's amazing to think that in the long time between the original crisis and now that it would've been so easy to just migrate sunwards. All those that came before us were blessed with more time and resources, that they could simply try to push the problem to the future. They all fancied themselves as pacifistic and harmonious, and saw it wrong to take a planet that was already inhabited by native terrestrial life. It is for this reason alone that, even though it was completely possible for our predecessors to have lengthened their species lifespan that they ultimately chose to die out. How ironic that the Romans named our planet after their own deity of warfare.

"However... we are different. We are desperate. And I shall admit... we are the most savage of Martian life to consider itself 'intelligent'. But it is that savagery that kept us alive, and allows us to adapt. Because we are not as blinded by harmony or guilt or cultural restrictions, we are able have moving to this planet as an option. In doing so we are not stopped by remorse of brutalising local life nor regret of leaving our home planet.

"It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change."

Finishing with a quotation Nagato soon fell into silence like a toy that ran out of batteries. She refilled her tea cup of tea and started to drink hers quietly in the intervening silence as she waited for our replies.

Suzumiya was still making a face like she was trying to say, 'that's all so stupid', but her resolve was faltering. The idea of a for real alien being in front of her was just too attractive to her, such that she would jump at the opportunity, especially with all the evidence that was piled up. And the fact that Nagato smiles when she's joking, but right now she's sitting there like a Victorian doll.

As for me? I really don't care about the content of this conversation. Can I have my coat back? It's quite cold and I'd like to go home now...

Interrupting the long silence, the doorbell rings.

Nagato stands, giving us a small bow. "Excuse me." She strides out of sight to answer whomever it is at the door.

As soon as she's out of sight Suzumiya leans into my personal space. "Hey Kyon...!" she 'whispers'. "Do you think she might be telling the truth? I mean... it's stupid for it to be so easy... but it kind of fits together."

Gee. Fits together how?

"Like... her standing beneath the storm thingy tonight... and her weird pauses all the time; maybe she's calling her Martian friends during those pauses!"

"That's a nice hypothesis, but it's flawed," I reply half-heartedly. "Messaging can't travel faster than light according to relativity, and at light speed messaging still takes a couple of minutes to get to Mars, not to mention the time back. Nagato's pauses would have to be a lot longer than half a second for that to work."

Though I'm not denying Nagato is an alien from Mars. I'm sure she is.

Suzumiya face twists in inner turmoil; conflicted between accepting the evidence hinting that Nagato is an alien and not accepting it for its dumb obviousness.

Nagato then walks back towards us, which made Suzumiya jump in fright since we weren't even sure she had answered the door yet; we hadn't heard any talking in that direction. Soon, though, it's confirmed that the door was answered as a second figure walks in behind Nagato, which made Suzumiya jump a second time.

"Asakura!" she shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh? Didn't Kyon-kun or Nagato-san tell you?" Asakura asked with a pleasant smile. "I live in the same building as Nagato-san." She holds up a large pot. "I heard that you hadn't had dinner yet so I brought something to eat."

_I should run, now..._ my mind tells me. _The number of aliens in the room has just doubled._

I don't run, however. I can't find the will to. Simply put, now that food was actually literally on the table and steaming hot out of a pot in front of me I suddenly feel like I should resolve my hunger and cold issues first and foremost.

* * *

And so the four of us sat around a table in silence save for the tapping of chopsticks. Asakura's cooking was phenomenal, sure, but the air was still heavy. Not one of us revealed our thoughts to the others; though I was sure Nagato and Asakura could communicate non-verbally or even telepathically.

There was still something nice about it all, though. A small part of me felt like, for once in a long time, I was enjoying myself. It was a feeling I kind of liked... sitting together around a table to eat a home cooked meal together. A completely ordinary (if nerve-racking quiet) dinner as a group. Perhaps it was simply that I was no longer feeling so hungry, and that the unnatural cold started to go away.

It turns out that Suzumiya hadn't had dinner either, since she ate just as much as I did. If she were enjoying the meal as much as I secretly was, however, it certainly didn't show. In fact, I could notice her expression growing darker with each bite.

When we finished Nagato silently picked up the dishes and took them to the kitchen to wash them. The rest of us continued to sit wordlessly.

"Asakura...?" Suzumiya asked, a scowl on her face. I think I hear her mutter 'this is so stupid' to herself before continuing. "Are you... like... Yuki...?"

"You mean a Martian?" Asakura smiles in her natural and delightful way. "I sure am. Only, I'm actually born on Earth and I've never been back to Mars. Technically that makes me an Earthling like you I suppose."

Suzumiya's scowl worsens. Evidently the ease at which Asakura admitted her alienness is offputting for Suzumiya. "Then why didn't you tell me earlier?" she snarls, crossing her arms. "I said at the start of the year, didn't I? I asked any aliens to come to me."

Asakura giggled in a girlish way. "I remember that. It was quite surprising, so much that I was a little worried that you'd caught on to me. Besides... I wasn't going to just blow my cover and announce to the class, 'hey, I'm actually from Mars!' right then and there for your sake."

Suzumiya muttered angrily. She's more or less reverting herself back to the grouchy, constantly irritated Suzumiya our class was introduced to at the start of the year. "Then why reveal it now?"

Asakura pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "Nagato-san?" she turned back to the house owner.

Walking back from the kitchen with another set of tea, having just finished with the dishes, Nagato answered, "It was getting too obvious." She looked directly at me as she said, "I was certain you were already connecting the dots several days ago. The fact that you saw the..." she paused for the right word, "'UFO' was just the final nail in the coffin, so to speak."

Eyes suddenly widening, Suzumiya turned to me, violently dragging my arm. "You what!? You saw it!? When!? Why didn't you tell me!?"

I only just saw it this evening! Give me a break! I don't even want to be in this whole thing right now!

"You'd have found out ultimately anyway," Nagato continued as she took her seat in front of us. "The other two seem convinced that revealing our identities is most beneficial."

"Who's this 'other two' you keep talking about?" Suzumiya asked. "You mean Mikuru-chan and Koizumi-kun? They know about all this too?"

Precisely.

"Exactly how does revealing your status as aliens help you, exactly?" I ask them. "I mean, maybe before I could still be in doubt about whether or not you were alien. The UFO might've just been a delusion from my hunger and exhaustion. Now we're fully aware of your origin we can broadcast it at my leisure."

Nodding, Nagato gave adjusted her glasses. "True... true..." closing her eyes for her timely pause, she said in a solemn whisper, "And to be honest, I originally didn't plan on revealing this information. I admit my first reaction was to try and permanently silence you."

And you acted on that first reaction.

"I failed at first due to intervention of unknown variables.." she gave a wry, weary smile. "You have the time traveller hindsight to thank for that."

The way she jokes about her genuine attempt to kill me sends new chills through my body.

"Still..." she continued, resuming seriousness. "I think we'd all prefer it if we can get a peaceful resolution. Asakura-san has brought up that you can be reasoned with first as..." she looked at us with a brief glimmer of contempt. "Living and semi-intelligent beings.

"Now as we've revealed the truth behind ourselves to you both, the following applies equally to you two, so listen carefully."

Suzumiya leaned forward, hanging on every word. She was completely engulfed in the conversation; by now she had dropped all her doubt that these beings in front of her were alien. As for myself... I listen as much as I should, but only so much.

"First, we don't want you to reveal our origins to anyone else. Too many people know already, and if any more people find out we may be forced to take extreme measures.

"Second, we don't want you looking any further into us; be it our actions, our motives, our technologies... as much as I would like to encourage reasonable curiosity and learning, knowing too much is truly dangerous.

"Third, we would like for you to attract less attention when associating with us. Attention will lead to people looking into our people, and will lead to people finding out things they shouldn't know."

"If you can sufficiently fulfil the above then I promise you that we are mostly harmless, and will not have any major impact on your daily life." She said the above line while looking at me. She then turned to Suzumiya, adding, "And I'm also willing to answer any questions you may have, so long as they aren't on sensitive topics. Does that sound fair to you both?"

In other words... I keep out of your business and you'll keep out of mine. That sounds fair to me. That's actually exactly the type of agreement I'd want in this sort of situation.

It's also exactly the type of agreement Suzumiya would hate.

"What!?" she yells, slamming the table with both her hands, standing up furiously. She kind of reminds me of that time I broke my promise to buy my sister a triple scoop ice cream when I wanted to bring her along for some pseudo-scientific time travel attempt. The sense of betrayal, of losing the exact thing one sought out to gain... that was what Suzumiya must be feeling right now. "You can't do that! You can't suddenly just announce that you're aliens and then tell me to not do anything with that information! I've tried so_ hard_ to find something _exactly_ like this, and now that I have it you can't just lock me out!"

She smashes her fist against the table, punctuating her words as she speaks.

"And how can you expect me to just keep quiet!? I mean, you admitted that you're here to take over the Earth, right!? As a native Earth human shouldn't I be obligated to warn my fellow humans about it!? Do you think you can bribe me by telling me that you _might_ answer what questions I have!? What if I want _more_ than just answers!? What if I want answers to things you won't talk about!? Am I supposed to just nod my head obediently and keep waggling my tail!?"

_Just be quiet will you? Give it a rest. She could easily just kill us now. Don't piss her off you moron._

Nagato, after patiently waiting for Suzumiya's rant to be over, bowed her head apologetically. "If it's any consolation... you'll find more interest in the other two. I think they'll be less secretive... if also less informed."

Suzumiya was about to make another speech about how that wasn't enough when the hitherto silent Asakura spoke up.

"Nagato-san?" she said, smiling intently but with a tone of seriousness beneath her pleasant demeanour. "You should tell them the full story."

"..." The short haired girl hesitated for a while, staring at Asakura with an almost hostile expression. Between them I could almost hear the sound of radio static. "Very well..." Nagato said, relenting and looking back at Suzumiya. "I can't say much on it yet... but we do take a certain modicum of interest in you. Again, though, it's best to ask the other two. They're more likely to tell you the details."

Suzumiya paused, evidently mulling it over in her mind. Her arms crossed and her face in a dreadful scowl, she finally mutters out, "Fine..."

_Far from it._ I think. _Far from it._

* * *

"Thank you both for listening to the end, by the way," Nagato said as I put on my shoes. "It really does save us from having to resort to primitive brutality."

"Don't mention it," I say. "Really. Don't." I wait for Suzumiya to finish putting on her shoes too before turning back at Nagato. "Can I have my coat back now?"

"... Yes, of course," she says, as she hands me back the coat she has been holding on to this whole time. As she does so, she reaches into one of the pockets of the coat, and pulls something out of it. "You can give this back to the time traveller, by the way. Send my regards."

Suzumiya peers over my shoulder with grudging curiousity as I take hold of the bookmark. _Did you have to say that in front of Suzumiya? Now she'll want to know what it is._

Putting on my coat I shove the bookmark back into the same pocket that Nagato pulled it out of. I promise nothing.

"Feel free to visit any of us any time," Asakura says perkily. "You can ask us anything so long as other people aren't around to hear us."

Whatever. Suzumiya heads out the door without a word, and I follow suit.

As I close the door I glance at Nagato one last time. It doesn't take her long to notice my gaze. She smiles at me. For once, though, something in her smile indicated that she wasn't in a joking mood. "About three years ago..." she says, barely more than a whisper. "I'm truly sorry."

Once again Suzumiya turns around, peering over my shoulder. Half curious, half annoyed that I know more than she does.

"Again... don't mention it," I reply. "Please."

I let the door close with a click, finally separating the two Martian girls from Suzumiya and myself. Heading straight for the elevator I ignore Suzumiya's glares and silent expectation for me to cough up.

Surprisingly, my bicycle (which I had all but forgotten up to this point) was at the bottom of the apartment building when I got out of the elevator, waiting for me. _How convenient._

Suzumiya and I walk without sharing a word, and part ways with little more than a "I'm going this way" from each of us. I suppose she has too much on her mind to bother speaking with me. God knows.

By the time I get back it's already really late. Not that it makes a difference. Nobody's home anyway. I lie on my bed and immediately fall asleep.

_I hope I never have to wake up._

* * *

**A/N: This chapter ended up longer than expected because I just got a bit too excited in getting to completely reimagine the aliens of the Haruhiverse. I've decided to base them off of aliens in classic science fiction, by the most part; Darwinist invaders from the doomed red planet that see us the same way we see cattle, but not so advanced ahead of us that they are like God-figures like the Data Entity.**

**The issue is that it's hard to make time travellers or ESPers as interesting due to significant limits that exist for both that don't let the imagination fly as much, especially since I want to try and base them both too on older, outdated and cliché interpretations.**

**This chapter is also less different from its canon equivalent as I would hope, since my imagination is limited and biased by what I've already read, and the basic structure of the Melancholy's plot is still needed for now. It's extremely hard to find the correct balance between having things similar to the original Haruhiverse and creating something completely unrelated due to the interlocked nature of events in the Haruhiverse (due to time travel).**

**Anyway. I've been trying to make it increasingly obvious what the root difference in the universes are. Hope you guys are picking it up, but also hope it's not too obvious.**


	5. Chapter 2 - II

**A/N: **This chapter is subject to future editing and changes. Future chapters are also not guaranteed.

* * *

The school day started normally. I seldom complain about normalcy but in this one instance I knew it was merely a calm before the storm.

Suzumiya behind me didn't so much as make a sound after she sat down. It was truly like she had gone back in time to when school just started; not a word out of her mouth, and the harshest of frowns on her face. This in and of itself caused a few heads to turn and look at her, including Asakura's.

For her part, Asakura continued to play the part of a completely non-alien class representative, and had even tried to approach Suzumiya to ask whatever was the matter, only to earn herself a stern glare.

Taniguchi and Kunikida both kept looking at me like I had done something wrong, but said nothing of it.

Even by lunchtime, Suzumiya remained rooted to her seat, sitting in the same position since she got there. The sheer amount of negative energy radiating from behind me started to make the whole classroom nervous.

Still. I didn't see any point in talking to her. I knew what was on her mind.

* * *

The bell rings to end the school day. As though all her prior energy that she didn't expend since morning was suddenly bursting from her Suzumiya suddenly grabbed the back of my collar and pulled upwards with the strength of an industrial crane.

"Come!" she ordered.

Barely able to breathe a refusal I find myself dragged towards the literature clubroom at a swift pace. Only when we get there am I able to break free of her grip. "Get off me you madwoman!"

I spit and cough, cursing her with as much annoyance as my face could muster. There wasn't really even any reason for her to drag me here, after all. As much as I despise her and everything about the situation I find myself wanting answers as much as she does, only different answers to different questions.

Already seated in the room was the alien Nagato, sitting with a book in her lap and glancing at us with mild confusion at the commotion. It was like the conversation last night had never happened for her. Also in the room was Asahina, who was seated by the table, fiddling with... some sort of small contraption with various wires and microchips, humming a merry tune to herself.

"Yuki," Suzumiya addressed the Martian that had revealed herself with surprising lack of interest, like a child disinterested in an older toy in favour of a potential newer one. "Out."

_You can't just order her out of the room. She's still the literature club president. The world doesn't revolve around you. Burn yourself, for heaven's sake._

Despite the rudeness of Suzumiya's demand, Nagato got up as soon as she finished with her processing time. She made an expression as though she suddenly understood what all the fuss was about as she quietly left the room. She probably did.

Which left just Suzumiya, Asahina, and myself.

"How racist," Asahina said, half to us, half to herself. She still seemed more fixated with whatever it was she had in her hands than she was with us. "Discriminating against the foreign. Suddenly treating her like she's less of a person just because she isn't native."

She childishly smiled as she talked, thinking herself clever for making such a subtle joke.

"Cut the crap..." Suzumiya practically spat, taking a chair opposite to where Asahina was. You'd think she'd be a bit more excited having this sort of conversation. "Kyon."

What? Do I have to be part of this?

Suzumiya glares at me. "Just hurry up."

Fine.

I take out the small bookmark from my pocket and put it onto the desk, right in the middle between Suzumiya and Asahina. I don't take a seat yet. I don't want to be a part of this. I'm sure Suzumiya wants to ask all the questions herself anyway.

"Mikuru," Suzumiya asks. She noticeably dropped the '-chan' as she spoke. "What is this?"

"Hmm? Haven't you worked that one out by now?" was the reply. Asahina didn't so much as look up yet.

Yeah. I have an idea of what it is. It's some sort of technology that you got in the future. I don't know if it's man-made or Martian or if it's from the Galactic Empire in another dimension. Regardless, it's some sort of self-activating shield, and it protected me when Nagato shot at me with her laser/freeze-ray. You gave it to me because you knew I'd end up seeing the giant UFO.

"Eight points out of ten," Asahina said, giggling a little. "Martians are like that. Paranoid. Secretive. Hostile. Territorial. Apparently, according to future archeologists, they actually remain extremely pacifistic throughout all their history."

Eighty percent... less than I'd like, but more than I put in effort for.

"Heh. The other two points are for working out that it's also visual communication of signals," she further elaborates with absolute casualness. "As soon as your brain receives and decrypts the signals it lets you see past certain Martian stealth technologies."

Sure. Whatever.

Suzumiya shoots me a quick glare. Evidently she isn't happy about not being in on the conversation.

"So..." the self declared SOS brigade leader continues. "You're a time traveller, right?"

"Mmhmm." Asahina hummed with a nod, still not glancing up.

"And you're from the future?"

"Yep."

"With a time machine?"

"If that's what you call it."

"And you've already met Yuki and Itsuki in other periods of time?"

"I thought that one was obvious."

She answered every one of Suzumiya's questions with the rapid ease and disinterest as she would if she was asked basic addition of single digit integers. Despite her beauty in every other way her attitude was something that was really starting to get on my nerves. From the look on Suzumiya's face, it must be getting to her as well.

"There we go," Asahina said, wiping dust off of her hands and flicking a switch on whatever it was that she was working on.

And from the small contraption appeared a semi-transparent, three dimensional hologram. What the diagram was I wasn't sure of. It was made up of odd geometric shapes interlocking one another, and just rotating slowly, to allow us to get the view all around.

Asahina looks at us with a look of pride. "Impressive isn't it? I made it using a bunch of junk I bought when I was travelling the silk road fifteen hundred years ago."

Enough showing off. Get to the point.

Pouting a little for our lack of appreciation of her handicraft, Asahina begins her lengthy explanation. As she does so the 3D hologram changes, like animated slides to a seminar power point. She begins to regard us with the most seriousness that I've heard her speak with from the moment I met her.

"There are three dimensions of space, as you know. Length, width, height. Moving by rail is like one dimensional movement; a straight line, set by the rail. Movement by car is like movement in the second dimension; forward back as well as left and right. Aircraft is the third dimension, letting you go up and down.

"The fourth dimension of time, too, is something that can be moved through. Other mechanics are involved too... it requires a lot of mathematical working, but to be honest, humans have been time travelling as early as the second century AD, but those were some terrible vehicles; only going one way, or only having one passenger. This one guy I met ended up getting sacrificed in Mesoamerica because his time travel device was a one use contraption.

"Anyway, so I'm from the far future. I'll tell you this now: it's a bleak place in the future. I myself grew up in the ghettos no less. Part of the reason I decided to travel to the 21st century was because it's considered the golden age of humanity. After the year 2100, though, everything started going downhill: Fossil fuels run out. Pollution causes the sea to be completely toxic. Space programmes go awry, causing satellites to fall into the sea, which lead to toxic tsunamis around the world. There was even a nuclear war over in Europe; I think it was something about working conditions. Anyway... by the 23rd century, anything that could've gone wrong had gone wrong. One would think that's about the time things start lightening up a little, right? Except they didn't. In fact, they got worse.

"You see, humanity survived through the apocalyptic century through all sorts of nonsense; cybernetic implants, genetic engineering, enhancement drugs... by the time the human race was no longer in danger we were no longer really the human race anymore. Everyone had too many modifications to be considered 'human', and we were all too dependent on technology. What happens afterwards is the creation of the 'World Government', and then segregation of humans based on how much modifications they had.

"I don't really know what happens afterwards to be honest, because everything that happens afterwards is clouded by so much brainwashing and World Government propaganda, and it's hard to tell truth from lies. That and the fact that the invention of cyberspace started to make it harder and harder to tell reality from VR; I'm not even sure if all this is just a simulation right now. I do know, however, that there's a significant amount of drug abuse, cyber crime, backstabbing, exploiting... I actually had to do a few terrible things myself to get the parts of my time machine from the black market. I wanted to go back in time to try and find a way to prevent the future I was from, so I kept going further and further back to try and find the point where it all started.

"Then I failed. Time is a funny thing; it's a surprisingly solidly locked loop. It's all consistent. You can go back and forth between time, but I'm still not sure you can go left right and up down; in other words, create and travel to alternate universes. Every time I try to change the future by altering the past it just happens that whatever I did was what actually _caused_ that same future. If I try to go back a second time to try and do something completely different it ends up like it didn't happen, and I still go forward into the same future. I don't really know why. I suppose my mind is just not set to the mathematical calculations needed to make it possible yet. So now that I find it's impossible to change the future I ended up deciding to just spend the rest of my life somewhere relaxing.

"And that brought me to you guys. Met you guys in the past, actually. Not that you know yet. Time travel trouble. You'll see one day. Any questions? "

She smiled with the conclusion of her presentation, losing her tone of seriousness once again, and switching back to lightheartedness. The hologram disappears like someone hit the 'off' button to the television.

Suzumiya once again wore an expression of great conflict as she was deep in thought.

"What about the Martians?" she asks.

Perhaps I blinked, or it was the lighting... but Asahina's permanently cheerful smile seemingly twitched for a moment. "From what I've learnt they're like intelligent, telepathic cloudlets held together by electromagnetic energy and radiation. Much smaller than human microbes. Capable of infiltrating bodies of humans and rapidly assimilating them. Didn't Yuki-chan already tell you about this?"

No, frankly, she didn't. I suppose, then, technically Nagato and Asakura are just human bodies dominated by Martian souls, or something of that like.

"Yuki said she's here as part of an invasion force," Suzumiya says. "What happens?"

"My my... straight to the point..." Asahina murmurs to herself, shaking her head for a while. She then paused to look at the closed door nervously, fearing that Nagato may be overhearing our conversation. As she does so Suzumiya finds herself also glancing in the same direction, having forgotten that the very alien she speaks of is probably at the other end of that door.

The hologram reappears once again, showing a perfect, reddish sphere. "Not everything I can say about the Martians is necessarily true, since the topic was subject to a lot of World Government propaganda and cover up," Asahina starts with a disclaimer. "I've also been told by several Martians I've crossed paths with that to them time travelling or telling the future to the past is taboo. So... in respect of Yuki-chan, I don't really think I should say too much. I can tell you, though, they do certainly invade, and the invasion was quite devastating."

As she talked, though, Asahina shot another glance at the door. At the same time I noticed the hologram flicker for a brief moment, and was replaced by barely legible characters which I only just managed to read.

'They die out. Don't tell Yuki.'

After a while Asahina once again clears up, and smiles in her chipper manner. "Still. If there's anything else you want to know I'll probably tell you more than Yuki-chan does, but I'm not sure if what I say is true or not," she says, once again speaking like she treats life a joke. "I'd probably tell you just to annoy her. Oh, that applies about anything about the future as well."

"Okay..." Suzumiya continues. "So why are you telling us all this? Why reveal yourself to us?"

Asahina looked at Suzumiya with, for once, what seems like the same expression Suzumiya has whenever I ask her a question that she finds stupid. "If we're going to be friends then we're going to have to properly know each other first, right? Besides; when I met you guys you already knew I was from the future. Might as well be the person to tell it to you."

Simple as that.

Suzumiya returned to her silence as she tried to take in all this information. For her the entire idea may be a mixture of 'it's too simple', and 'this is exciting'. Just about everything Asahina said about the future was so typical, like it was dragged out of an science fiction film from the 80s or the 90s.

Me... I still didn't care about all that. Maybe these big things will happen in my lifetime, and maybe they won't. It's not my place to bother. Instead... I worried about other things.

"You said you met us in the past..." I said, finally speaking my share. I should keep it brief; Suzumiya doesn't like it when I take charge, and neither do I. The less I say the better. "When exactly did you meet us?"

Asahina smiled at me slyly. Surprisingly, she didn't speak at all with the usual pity that I receive when talking on this topic. It was nice, I think, not being pitied. "Oh, don't play coy," she teased with a wink. "You should know better than I do. It was on _that_ day three years ago, of course!"

Of course. When else?

Suzumiya once again turned to look at me, increasingly displeased that I always seemed further ahead in getting myself wrapped into it all than she is. I want to say 'it's not my fault! I don't even _want_ to be here!', but the very fact that she doesn't ask me to spit out what I know has already proven that she knows that.

"Don't feel jealous, Haru-chan," Asahina perkily comments on Suzumiya's obvious envy. "You'll be there too. In fact, you were the exact reason I was there. I'm sure it's the same for Yuki-chan. Probably for Itsuki-chan too."

Suzumiya gives out a small 'humph!', showing that while she is still unhappy she is temporarily satisfied with the promise that she'll be focus of the world one day. Most likely, though, she's still going to end up demanding whatever information I have, no matter how much I'd rather not think about it.

"Whatever..." Suzumiya ends up saying, standing from her chair. "We still have to talk to Itsuki. Come." She storms out the door, expecting me to follow.

You don't have to order me around.

After all, Koizumi is the one out of the three I want to know about the most.

* * *

Suzumiya and I walk side by side down the hallway, neither speaking nor looking at each other. Whatever it is she has to say to me she must be saving it for last. Of course... I don't have anything I want to say to her, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm not in charge of my own fate.

"Do you think that's really the future of humanity?" Suzumiya asks abruptly, stopping dead in her tracks at the bottom of the stairway.

Interesting that you aren't even questioning the idea that she's from the future.

"It seems too predictable..." Suzumiya continued. "It's like everything she said was from reading sci-fi future cliches. All that about the terrible future and time travelling back to try and find a way to fix things. It isn't original at all."

So? Aren't you satisfied with the fact that you even got to _meet_ a time traveller? Or is there something else that's bugging you?

Suzumiya starts to say something before she switches gears. "Never mind. Let's just find Itsuki. Well... where do you suppose he is?"

Well he wasn't at the clubroom. Perhaps he's even decided to drop the club altogether and is heading home right now, or he might be looking around at other clubs. Who knows? Maybe he even transferred out of school already. There's a million possibilities like that.

But I doubt it.

On a normal occasion I'd have just said any of the above excuses, shrugged, and ignored Suzumiya. But not today. Even I have something I want to say to him. For that reason I muster every bit of my resolve, and decide to try something that seems completely insane, yet I'm somehow sure will work.

"Hey. Koizumi." I call out in a voice much louder than I'm used to hearing myself in. "Come over here for a minute. We need to talk."

The sound of my voice seems to echo through the empty hallway of the first floor. There was no response.

_It didn't work._ I thought to myself, half disappointed, while also half relieved.

I was about to pass the whole thing off with a shrug when I see Koizumi's face peeping at us from beneath the stairs.

_Why on Earth are you sitting down there? _I thought. Suzumiya is probably thinking the same thing too.

Koizumi crawled out of the small, dark area beneath the stairs, quietly murmuring to us. "H... hey guys. I was just... sitting down there. Nothing strange."

He tried for a moment to smile at us politely, but soon he realised his explanation failed to actually explain anything.

"Err... well I was actually going to the clubroom... then I saw this area down here, and felt like just sitting down for a while. The... the darkness is actually quite nice, and it's pretty quiet and peaceful... and nobody can see me down here, so..." Koizumi elaborated in a shaky voice, desperate to avoid being judged, but really his attempts to explain himself only end up sounding more and more strange. In the end Koizumi just gave up, and stared glumly at his own feet.

I keep my silence, and surprisingly so does Suzumiya. It's amazing that she's able to muster up the compassion to not force Koizumi to hurry up. Maybe she's expecting him to tell him her whole story anyway, and doesn't mind the wait. Maybe she's just... testing him.

"Yes..." Koizumi mumbles, after a long while of silence. "I'm an ESPer."

His statement was not surprising to anyone, so we simply wait for him to continue.

Koizumi took several deep breathes before continuing, shuffling and shifting several times, thinking of a way to build upon his statement. When he did pick up once again he spoke in a way that seemed like he was apologising that he kept it a secret.

"T... to be honest... I didn't know when it all started. I don't actually know much about any of this myself. In fact... I think Nagato-san and Asahina-san know more about me than I do. Still... I always remembered things would happen to me ever since I was little. Weird things, I mean. Some of them still feel like they're dreams...

"At first I don't think I didn't understand. I thought they were all pretty normal, because I was used to it. Overtime, though... I started to realise I was different from everyone else. People started to avoid me, or throw things at me, or call me names. Bad things also happen to me more often than other people. There are also a lot of things that I see that other people don't... so much that I'm not actually exactly sure what normal people can see, so I'm often to afraid to talk about any of it...

"Every time something terrible or drastic happens that other people consider 'abnormal' my family ends up moving, and I transfer schools. The more I moved the less frequent things happened. I used to have to transfer every few weeks, but I stayed at my last school for almost a full year. Since I transferred to this school, though, weird things are happening again. They aren't bad things... but... I can tell they aren't normal. I don't know why... there just seems to be a large concentration of energy in this place.

"Ah... there are others like me too. I found out when I started getting older, I started to hear more and more voices in my head... there are actually quite a few of us around the country, and we try to help each other out, mostly. Most of them are very nice people, and they've often helped me adjust whenever I encountered a problem. It's kind of like... a forum network in our minds.

"Yeah... yeah I can read your minds, yes. Not always. I try to avoid reading people's minds... it's not polite, and it's also quite scary what other people think sometimes. Sometimes I can't ignore it, though, and other times I can't hear no matter how hard I try. That sort of thing happens with all my extrasensory perceptive powers. Sometimes they work, other times they don't. Sometimes I see and hear visions, other times I don't. It's all very murky.

"I think... I think there's definitely a pattern behind it all though. The universe should have a plan, I think. I mean... I often get a sort of 'gut feeling', and I always follow it... and that's what brought me to you guys, and to Nagato-san and Asahina-san, and I'm very thankful for that. You guys are the first friends I've made at school since I was six.

"That's... that's everything, I think..." Koizumi ended his speech, his voice trailing off into obscurity. "Ah... I'm not keeping any secrets, by the way... unlike the other two," he began again, somehow convinced that we didn't believe him. "So that really is everything... but I think the other two have their own reasons for not telling you about themselves."

As with the Martians and the time traveller, Suzumiya paused to take in Koizumi's story. After considering what he had said she follows with the same sort of question drilling that she had taken with Nagato, Asakura and Asahina.

"So that's really everything, huh...?" she asked rhetorically, evidently readying herself to see if she could pry more out of him. "What kind of powers do you have?"

"... Just... typical psychic powers. I'm not too sure... sometimes I have some of them, other times I don't..." Koizumi said, a repeat of what he had already told us.

"So do you get visions of the future?"

"...Sometimes...?"

"How far into the future?"

"... I don't know..."

"What time is Mikuru-chan is from?"

"I don't know..."

"What about Yuki-chan? Where is she from?"

"I... I still think she's from someplace else..."

"How can you tell?"

"I... it's like she has a cloud all around her... and a lot of harmless radiation... I don't know..."

"Where is she from?"

"I don't know..."

"What is she here for?"

"I don't know...

"How did you get your powers?"

"I... I don't know..."

Koizumi's voice seemed to diminish with each 'I don't know' he said, and he seemed to get increasingly nervous, like a child being asked extremely hard Maths equations with the threat of being smacked.

Suzumiya lets out a disappointed sigh. "Doesn't look like you're lying, but you really don't seem to know much," she comments. "Why does there have to be an inverse proportion to the amount of information known and amount of information willing to say?"

Koizumi, slouches into a small bow, barely making out a 'sorry'. Not that he has to apologise for anything.

There was still one more thing that I had to ask him, though. There was one thing I still needed to know, and only Koizumi could tell me the answer.

"Hey, Koizumi," I began. "Sorry to bother you. I know it's hard for all this to be dumped on you only the second day here at this school, but..."

Before I could actually ask my question, though, Koizumi had cut me off, managing to glance up at me, making eye contact with me for the first time throughout the conversation.

"Yes," he said.

_Is he just saying that...?_ I began to ask myself._ Or does he really...?_

Perhaps reading my mind, Koizumi eliminated the doubt I had in my voice with his following sentence. "I could hear her," he said. His voice was sad, which it usually was, but somehow... it also seemed consoling. "We all could."

Suzumiya glanced at me, probably to ask 'who is this 'her'?' or something. It wasn't important. She kept her mouth shut. I've already got my answer.

"Look... Kyon..." Koizumi forced himself to continue, his face twisted with pain. From his expression I could easily tell that he was not lying when he said he heard it. He was probably closer to her than I was. "We're all really sorry... I mean..."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you didn't mean anything bad anyway." I save him the need to give an obligatory apology for something that probably wasn't his fault.

For a moment Koizumi hesitated. Since he's probably reading my mind this instant he can probably tell I'm hesitant myself. Thankfully, though, he stops talking about it. He turns instead to Suzumiya. "Sorry..." he apologises to her once again, despite not really needing to. "It's rude of us to not include you in our conversation... but you shouldn't mind too much. I have a strong feeling that you'll be more connected to the rest of us in future."

He ended with a bow, and headed up towards the literature clubroom.

Which left me, once again alone with Suzumiya.

So? Do you doubt Koizumi's an esper?

Suzumiya shook her head. "No, not at all," she said wearily. "I mean, it's a typical story of a boy who suddenly develops ESPer powers and gets picked on and constantly has to transfer schools... boring, but I don't think he's lying."

How do you know he isn't hypnotising you into thinking that way?

Suzumiya shook her head again. "More importantly..." she began to look at me once again with the expectation that I'm to tell her everything about myself. Though... it was less of a demand to tell her, and more of a casual, half-hearted questioning look.

What? Is this where I tell you my life story?"

"Well I've already got an alien, a time traveller and an ESPer. So what does that make you? A slider?"

Where on Earth did you get _that_ notion?

I sigh, opening my mouth to speak. "I'm just an ordinary human."

It was an honest truth, and was something that I said with probably a bit more bitterness than I intended.

Suzumiya looked at me with a degree of suspicion, which I once again choose to ignore. I've answered my fill. I don't like to elaborate on my past... or elaborate at all. I've had enough 'supernatural' for one day. I turn and leave.

Surprisingly... and thankfully, Suzumiya makes no attempt to stop me.

I end up walking aimlessly until the sun begins to set before I finally make my way home. When I get back in through the door I am once again greeted by silence. Having no energy or will left in me to cook I decide that I'll survive without dinner.

As I lie on my bed, staring at my ceiling, I can't help but feel numb. Everything is coming to me. Everything I've tried to suppress is starting to surface. I can't help but laugh a little at the irony. Just a small smile at first... then a small chuckle. _I suppose letting some expression show on my face doesn't hurt if nobody's around to see it..._ I decide to laugh some more. Soon, the sound of my mad cackling begins to echo across the house, without anyone around to hear.

"Oh the irony! Oh the _goddamned _irony!" I start to hoot. "After all this time! After all that's happened! _This_ is happening to me _now_ of all times!"

_I hate you all. I want nothing to do with you anymore. I just want a normal life as a normal high school student doing normal things. I want to stop standing out above the crowd. I want people to stop staring. I want to stop staring. Now suddenly everything starts popping up at me, and somehow _thatday_ three years ago becomes the biggest thing in the universe._

_After all this time... after all that's happened..._ _why now? WHY NOW!?_

_Jump of a bridge. Suffer and burn. Just die. Go to hell. All of you._

* * *

**A/N: I'm posting up these chapters far faster than I expect myself to normally, but don't get too used to it. The speed is already starting to drop. ****The upside of that is that these updates come out faster. The downside is that they may be rushed, so poorer quality, and more subject to future change (it's a bad habit of mine to rush these things).**

**This chapter ended up in the unfortunate position of a mostly uninteresting exposition chapter. There's simply so much that I want to explain and it's hard to find places to explain them.**

**Asahina and time travellers I had originally wanted to base off of H.G. Wells' Time Machine (which I still draw some inspiration from), but I already used H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds for the Martians. I then looked to 1950s and 60s ideals of the future, but came to realise that there's a pretty big gap between their ideals and what is plausible to happen in the future (we're already far ahead). I also noted that much retro-future sci-fi is heavily American influenced, whereas Japanese science fiction only started to be a thing later on, so I ended up having the future that Asahina was from as based off of cyberpunk genre.**

**I had some extreme difficulty working out the exact relation between the Martians and time travellers, and to some extent, with the ESPers as well, because this chapter lays a lot of the foundations that they have to work on in future.**

**Another hard thing was making the ESPers interesting... since compared to Martians and the future, there's surprisingly little that can be elaborated on with typical psychic powers that isn't already explored in common fictional works. It's still hard to try and wedge Koizumi into a place in my planning, but I'm slowly getting there.**

**And since I'm on a rant of difficult things when writing here; it's also really hard to work with Kyon in this, due to the fact that I'm still not altogether sure what the effects of the root change (which I'm hoping you guys are starting to pick up on, but also hoping you don't spoil for others) have on him. Contrast with Suzumiya, who seems like she's unchanged at all, making her difficult to write as well since I keep running out of ways to describe the Suzumiya Haruhi that everyone else already knows.**

**Also, to the reviewers that had asked for more development of the characters and whether there was an ending: Development will become more obvious in future (not sure how far in the future chapters, but definitely more obvious), and yes, I'm trying to work out an 'ending' of sorts.**


	6. Chapter 2 - III

**A/N: **This chapter is subject to future editing and changes. Future chapters are also not guaranteed.

* * *

Nagato Yuki. A soft spoken, polite, ideal-woman in the making, interested in sciences and president of the literature club. Like me, she tries to avoid attention. Then it turns out she's an alien. I saw the UFO with my own eyes, so there isn't any denying it.

Asahina Mikuru. Friendly, outgoing, enjoys teasing people, but a little disconnected from the world. She goes about her life without a care in the world. And she's a time traveller. I suppose that explains why she seems to always be a step ahead yet also a step behind everyone else.

Itsuki Koizumi. He transferred in just recently. He's a pretty decent person, but he's gloomy and lacking in confidence. He's normally carried about by the winds of fate rather than his own will. An ESPer. There's a certain closeness I have to hold to that, so I don't really doubt he's an ESPer.

The above three are all somehow connected to one another like competing members of a secret cult, and it's only now that I've started to realise that I'm part of that circle myself. Even though I'd sworn to let go of everything that I was three years ago, even though I'd gotten over the incident, it's still haunting me. It's a disease I can't escape.

Then there's Suzumiya. She's everything I'm not. She's loud, she attracts attention without caring, she's interested in aliens, time travellers, ESPers, and all those supernatural things. She's excited about the idea that the world is large and brilliant. She still has the enthusiasm that most people would've given up. She wants _in_ on this amazing adventure, and yet... she's the only one that's watching from the outside. She's gotten the chance to hear of the truth from an alien, a time traveller, and an ESPer, but she isn't part of the group.

Such irony. Both of the two of us stand where the other one wants to be, which puts us both at a loss of what to do.

* * *

The morning was horrid. Nothing about that ever changes. I get up. I go to school. I sit down. Taniguchi and Kunikida talked to me about something. I don't even quite remember what it was. My mind was elsewhere at the time.

Suzumiya showed up, but she didn't say anything all morning, nor during class or lunch. To the class it wasn't anything unusual, since they rarely saw how energetic she secretly was anyway.

It was only about the time class ended that she spoke.

"I don't get it."

She says that in a way as though I'm supposed to follow with 'What don't you get?', but frankly I don't want to care. I knew, though, that she would just let me leave ignoring her, so I remain in my seat, waiting for her to continue.

"It's unfair..." She says like an angry spoiled child.

Unfortunately for you, that's life.

"I've worked so hard to look for aliens, time travellers and ESPers all these years and they just suddenly show up like that."

One would expect you to be happier for getting what you wanted. And you know we're still in the classroom right? I don't think Asakura appreciates you just revealing everything to thirty plus people.

The girl shakes her head, "No, it just isn't right. I feel like everything I tried achieved no results, and that everything was just a lucky coincidence. It feels like I didn't really contribute to my own success."

Good to know you believe that hard work should be proportionately rewarded. Why not try to direct your spirit to something else?

Besides. That's not really what you find unfair. A fool could work that out.

"No... I suppose not..." she admits with some hesitation. "What find unfair is... why you?"

Why me? I really want to ask myself that same question, honestly. I want to ask Nagato, Asahina and Koizumi one by one. Maybe I can figure out a way that it won't be me. Maybe it'll all go away someday. It's not like I chose this path. It should be obvious to everyone that this is everything I've been trying to avoid.

Turning at least half-way towards Suzumiya's direction I start to address her a bit more seriously. I want to stay away from her as much as possible... but I get the feeling that staying away isn't at all possible, so I might as well get this over with.

"Honestly speaking, I used to be kind of like you," I said. "Not to the same extent of course. But I was into things like aliens and time travel. A lot of people used to think I was quite weird too. I got mocked quite a bit."

This seemed to make Suzumiya pause for thought as she regarded my statement with surprising seriousness. Maybe I should address her like this more often. Though... I'm sure if I did it'd lose the intended effect.

"I didn't find anything," I continued. "Then I just gave up. I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere and I was sick of all the attention. I wanted to blend into the normal crowd. Then you show up and trample all over that too. And now here I am."

In saying what I said I was expecting Suzumiya to react with anger or annoyance at my accusation that she had ruined my mundane lifestyle and wish, but she somehow continued to regard my soberly. In fact, she even looked a little bit guilt ridden. I didn't know she could ever make that sort of expression. Perhaps not as shocking as the first time seeing her smile, but still quite impacting.

I notice that Asakura, Taniguchi, Kunikida, and a few others are starting to glance at our direction already.

"I can't accept that sort of life," Suzumiya said, though with much less decisiveness than usual.

"What can't you accept? Being just another, miniscule part of this large universe?"

She gives a small nod. She's staring down at her desk now, thinking about things beyond her usual supernatural hype and far beyond this classroom.

"When I was in sixth grade my family and I went to see a baseball game. I didn't think much of it at first, but when I got there... I was amazed by how many people there were. At the other end of the stadium the people looked so small... like grains of rice. It was so crowded... it was like everyone in the whole country was there at that stadium.

"But when I asked my dad he said there was only somewhere around fifty thousand people that could fit into the stadium. That compared to the population of Japan..."

"About one person in every two thousand." I answered in my usual seemingly detached tone. I only made it as a subconscious comment voiced out loud, but my voicing out the ratio seemed to add to Suzumiya's moment of sad reflection.

After a pause Suzumiya continued, her voice weaker than even Koizumi's. "After that... it was like the world changed for me. I couldn't stay interested in anything anymore... I used to think I lived such a great life, and that my friends and classes were so interesting... but after that baseball game I couldn't help but think that everything I was doing, somebody else had to have done it somewhere, sometime. I felt like I was just another number to add to the world statistics, nothing more.

"So... when I entered junior high I decided to be different. I decided to try and stand out from the rest of the world, and to find others that could be irreplaceable, and to do things that nobody else can or will do. I ended up coming here... then I met you. You were like everything I didn't want to be. Quiet. Unexciting. Completely ordinary."

Thanks. I take all those as genuine compliments.

She gives a wry half-smile at my comment. "I was so annoyed by your attitude. I followed you when you were looking at clubs and tried to make the SOS brigade, and attract interesting, amazing people because I wanted to rub it into your face: 'Hey! Look at what you're missing out on!'... but... everything I did only seemed to make you want to dig even further into normal high school life. I felt like I was getting further and further away from being able to find anything amazing.

"Then... suddenly... I discover that all the amazing people I was gathering were even more amazing than I originally thought of them. And it turned out... you were more in touch with those amazing people than I was, even though you still didn't want anything to do with them. I suddenly started to doubt myself. I started asking myself... maybe I screwed up. Maybe, in my frantic search for novel, wondrous things I ended up missing a lot of potentially interesting stories and experiences that were right under my nose. Maybe... I should've just appreciated what I had."

'Maybe I should've appreciated what I had.' Those words somehow echoed through my mind. For once... I felt like Suzumiya and I had a lot more in common than what's on the outside.

Suzumiya, after her long-winded story, had fallen silent once again. She had turned to look outside the window at the sky, with a bitter smile on her face.

I contemplate, for a moment, just leaving the silence stay. I really do like silence over everything else. Something about it was relaxing. But... I suppose since Suzumiya had placed so much of her true self out into the open I should try to be a decent human being and give a thoughtful response.

I couldn't think of anything else.

"You know... when I was still interested in supernatural phenomena I used to go to great lengths trying to convince my little sister to join me in my glorious expeditions. My sister's actually how I got the nickname 'Kyon' stuck to me, originally."

The slightest shift in her hair showed that Suzumiya had turned her head in interest.

"She's five years younger than me, so it was hard to explain how trivial our individual lives were. Even though she was perfectly happy taking part in whatever grand scheme I came up with at the time she was also perfectly happy staying out of it. To her, the normal life she lived was already much more excitement than she could ever ask for. She was someone that certainly did appreciate what she had. In that... I think she was more mature than either one of us going out exploring at the expense of our normal lives."

Suzumiya turned her eyes to glance at me. "Is that so...?" she asked. Though she left part of the question unspoken, I could feel she was also hinting at asking why I decided to tell her about my sister.

I shake my head and shrug. "It's not important..." I say. "I was just partly explaining why I'm the way I am now, since you did the same just now. That makes things fair, right?"

Suzumiya took another moment to soberly regard my statement before giving another wry smile. "I see..." she said. "Well... your sister must have been a pretty normal and boring person for you to end up like this."

"... Yeah..." I say. "She was."

I turn around facing forward, once again, to notice that just about the whole class ended up staying behind to listen silently on our conversation. _Seriously? You were all _staring_ this whole time? Eavesdropping? Judging us? Can't you people just go home and leave me alone!?_

Taniguchi and Kunikida were looking at me with _those_ expressions. They knew exactly what I was talking about. They had typical responses. Asakura had that same expression. A lot of other classmates did too, actually.

_Sympathy._

"Come on, Kyon," Suzumiya said as she stood up behind me, slinging her bag over my shoulder. I notice quite a few people wince or cough disapprovingly as they hear her call my nickname. "Let's go to the clubroom."

I comply to her order, but this one time I complied out of will and with genuine agreement. Even though the literature clubroom was a place filled with so many harsh truths that I don't want to face it still felt more welcoming than the silence of my home, or the pitying, condemning stares of the classroom. Besides... I know I'll have to face them eventually.

I too sling my bag over my shoulder and I head out into the corridor, walking in pace to Suzumiya at her side. Not a step more, nor less.

* * *

As I walk into the literature clubroom after Suzumiya (we walk at the same pace but it's polite to let others through the door first) I note that all three of the others were there before us.

"Glad to see that you haven't decided to drop out yet," said Nagato, the first to greet us. She sat at her usual position with a book in her lap. "I'm actually a little amazed you still want to come."

Would you have preferred it if I didn't?

"Oh no, not at all. I was just thought that we all might've left too bad of an impression." The bespectacled girl gave a courteous smile, half-joking, but only half. "You seemed in a terribly bad mood yesterday and I was worried you'd stop showing up."

"Eh... you don't have to worry about him..." Asahina said, leaning on the table dejectedly and trying to amuse herself with a pinwheel like a board kindergartener. "He's still around in December."

How comforting to know that you care enough to keep track of what months I'll be here.

Nagato, for her part, shoots a quick glance at Asahina. "Well excuse me for having shown concern," the short haired literature club president said, "since I don't exactly know for certain the uncertain."

"Ah... that's right..." Asahina sat up a little, glancing back at Nagato with a teasing smile. "Sorry. I forgot that that was a spoiler. You'll have to get used to it though. The 'me' you'll see for most of the rest of the year is even less sensitive than the 'me' before you now."

The two maintained a shared gaze for a while, both maintaining their usual expressions of serenity and playfulness respectively.

_Ah... even without time travel or ESPer powers I can tell that those two will not get along through the year._

Deciding to stay out of the cold conflict between the two opposite and bizzare girls I take the seat next to Koizumi, whom seems to be quietly playing Othello by himself. As he sees me sit next to him he manages a sort of a weak smile and wave.

"Hey..."

"Yo," I respond. "Playing against yourself?"

"... Yeah... I must seem so silly..." he says shyly. "But... I don't think anyone here would really want to play against me..."

Considering that you're an ESPer that can read minds? I don't blame them.

Asahina suddenly wraps one arm around the each of us, pulling Koizumi closer to her large, soft breasts. "Naww, it's okay. You could always play against Yuki-chan. I know for a fact that you can't read her thoughts."

I try my best to remain neutral, and ignore Asahina's attempt to drag us into her 'argument' with Nagato. Koizumi, for his part, shuffles nervously, shooting several glances at Nagato, trying to avoid staring into Asahina's breasts.

I'll be honest. Even a wholesome man such as myself would have a hard time _not_ looking at a time like this.

Our attention was soon taken once again by Suzumiya after we notice her locking the door. Slowly and ominously she turned to look at us with a face of seriousness.

"Err... do you have to lock the door...?" Koizumi squeaks.

"Be quiet."

Suzumiya barked with such force that Koizumi and the rest of us are stunned into silence. Walking to about the center of the room and addressing each one of us with her eyes she takes a seat by the table, now opposite to where Koizumi and I sit. Interlocking her fingers and putting her hands to cover her mouth she announced to us like she were the school principal.

"There's going to be some changes around here."

Now under normal circumstances people would find this a most peculiar display. Why the sudden call for change? Why the sudden seriousness? Why lock the door? Why should we listen to what she has to say anyway? But of course it's been made obvious that nobody in this room is normal. Not even myself. So instead of confusion or doubt she is responded with a matching degree of seriousness. Even I find myself positioning myself to fully face her to better hear what she has to say.

"First of all, Asahina, Koizumi, Kyon," she names us out as she scolds us. Indeed she is seeming increasingly like a principal. "You three are acting too casual about everything. If somebody was just walking down the hallway and overheard you then rumours might start flying around."

Rumours are already flying around.

"No, I mean rumours about what is _actually_ going on in here."

You mean the fact that we actually have an alien, time traveller and ESPer?

"Yes, precisely. And I want you to try to avoid mentioning those three things if you can now."

Asahina gave a childish whine. "Eh...? But why?"

"Because most of us don't _want_ more people finding out." It's remarkable how rational Suzumiya is sounding now that she's putting her mind to it. I suppose, though, she doesn't want everyone to know about the fact that there's an alien, time travller and ESPer in the school because that'd detract the uniqueness of her position.

There was a brief moment of silence, before Koizumi suddenly said, "Okay, I'll try..."

Which was followed by a quick glare from Suzumiya, to which he responded by apologising.

_Ah, I see. So she also added a rule on 'No mind reading'. _

"That should actually go for all of you, by the way," Suzumiya said, turning around to Asahina and Nagato. "Nobody should be allowed to use any sort of supernatural powers or abilities in this clubroom or when we get together as a brigade unless the situation calls for it. We should try to all get along as ordinary people."

It's amazing that she of all people is adding that rule. Who'd have thought? And how does she expect to maintain that rule, anyway?

"Another thing. Even though you guys have already revealed a lot I can tell you're all keeping secrets from me." Suzumiya sounded severely unhappy as she said that. "I know there's a lot of things that you guys don't want me or the others to know, but if we're going to spend the rest of the year together in this clubroom we have to be able to trust each other. Either don't say anything, or spill it all."

Nagato politely raised her hand. "I'd like to make an objection."

"Denied." An immediate imperative response. The way in which she quickly shot down Nagato's attempted objection caused Asahina to giggle a little, and Koizumi to squirm.

"On the other hand," Suzumiya continued, "There are also things that you _shouldn't_ say in the brigade."

Quite a contradictory set of statements.

"For example, Mikuru-chan. No telling Yuki-chan things about the future if she doesn't like it.

"Also, things that are said in the brigade stay in the brigade. We don't want to cause mistrust between one another because we all start taking advantage of each other based on things that are said here."

The addition of those lines were sufficient for both Asahina and Nagato to silence their discontent for now.

"Now that that's established," Suzumiya turned her eyes now to me. "Tell me everything."

_Everything... huh?_

"Yeah." Suzumiya glanced around at all of the rest of us in the room. As she did so it seemed like there was some sort of barrier between us, still. Like Nagato, Asahina, Koizumi and I were on one side of the room, and her on the other. "I mean, it's too convenient. An alien, time traveller and ESPer all gather together in one clubroom just because I wish for it? And the guy who gives me the idea to start the club is somehow connected to all three of them by some event three years ago?

"Yuki-chan, Mikuru-chan and Itsuki-kun have all given out part of their story, but all you've told me so far was a story about how you used to be interested in the same things as me while your sister wasn't. There's still something you all aren't telling me."

_Heh. Of course she wants to know about that..._

I note that the tension in the room drastically increased as well.

Koizumi was suddenly trying to speak up, saying, "Ah... I don't think you should talk about that... err... how about I go first...? There's still a lot I haven't told you about... so..."

Asahina gave a mischievous giggle, murmuring something along the lines of, "Oh, you'll get to see for yourself anyway..."

Nagato just shook her head as she adjusted her glasses.

Each of them averted their gaze when I turned to them. Almost like they're still trying to cover it up.

I put my hand on Koizumi's shoulder, breaking him out of his frantic and pitiful attempt to try and divert Suzumiya's attention. "It's okay," I say, glancing at Nagato and Asahina in turn as I speak. "I suppose I might as well tell her sooner rather than later."

There was an almost audible amount of awkward shuffling from everyone present.

"But first, I want to add a 'rule' to the list."

Suzumiya opened her mouth, at first no doubt to object, but after a pause she ended up saying "Go ahead."

Leaning forward, elbows on the table, and intertwining my fingers the way Suzumiya had done upon entering the room I spoke my terms.

"From here onwards I want absolutely nothing to do with aliens, time travellers, ESPers, or any other supernatural thing that may cause me harm in any way."

A fair term, I think. And not one too out of character for me.

Suzumiya, after some thought, nods in agreement. After all, this is a fine chance for her and me to switch our positions; she'll be in on the amazing world of the paranormal, while I'll be able to retreat to the life of the normal.

"My story is quite simple. It only builds on the story that I've already told you." I speak, staring down at the table. Everyone in the room was listening to me, now. All eyes on me. Everyone watching. Listening. Staring.

_All of them._

_Go to hell. All of you._

"My sister," I say. "She contracted a mysterious disease three years ago and was hospitalised. The disease made her increasingly delusional. Just a week before class started, she passed away."

I glance at Nagato._ The first person in the circle._

"It's her fault that my sister got sick."

I glance at Asahina. _The second person in the circle._

"It's her fault that my sister wasn't sent to hospital in time."

I glanced at Koizumi. _The third person in the circle._

"And it's his fault that my sister was delusional."

I glance finally at Suzumiya. Whatever enthusiasm she still had for this wondrous adventurous story that she expected from me was suddenly gone now. In her mind she had never considered that these three things that she sought could've been things that had ruined so much for others. Most likely it's only the tip of the ice berg; these three would end up causing more pain for each other, and for Earth in the future, simply by being here together, in one club, in one room, forced into pretending to be cordial to one another because Suzumiya wanted to be special.

Such is reality.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late update, but they'll only slow down from here, since I'll be getting busier over time.**

**This chapter is rushed. I started writing faster than I could fill in the mental gaps in things I wanted in the story, and not sure when I should place certain events etc. One of the biggest things I was conflicted with was when to put the 'reveal', and I decided to put it here rather than leave it ambiguous for most of the story, only because it lets the reader better understand _why_ the changes are as they are.**

**I do like, though, that from this chapter onwards the story will take a turn way, way different from the original series.**


End file.
